


. M, 






^'::H:•■: 












• rS)' 












;:i;!-i:i:''';'ir.;'' ■ ii' ■ : 



o 0' 



^ " 



-OO^ 



v^^" 


-''-.. % 


"^. 




^r 


/• ' '^ 


• ';--~-' 




f-j> 


r'/ ,j 






5 3 --^- 




\ '' 


s "^ 


. ^ /. ^ 






^mH\ 


% 


.^^' 




Z.^^, '■. NJ^ ^ 


,.v^^' 


".f- 



,0 o. 



%"^i^y \^ 






' t^-"^' ^ 



c^N' 



.0 



O^ 



' ^ <^. 






^' " ■ '">.^^./^^ 'U 



^'^ 



^^> ,^^ 



,\' 






v\^ 



,^^ '^. 



>o 



:-vv 



\ 






\ 



■s^ ^ 



^#\.^.. ^ 

X^'^.. 









0' 



x^O^ 



,d^ 



.^:^ -'t 



.^■^- 



^' 



.-^^^ 



^. 



.0 o. 






V- 



.0 O. 















.^-^' 



,0o. 



o-^ -<!- 



.0 o 









'?/._ 






^^' 



sO o. 



MAY CAROLS. 



MA.Y OA^ROLS, 



HYMNS AND POEMS. 



AUBREY DE VERE. 



NEW YORK: 
LAWRENCE KEHOE, 

145 Nassau Street. 

i8oa. 



9K 



^^■^ 



,^ 



?> 



CHIfc. 

7 S '06 



TO 
THE VERY REVEREND 

HEKEY EDWAED MANNING 

THESE POEMS 

ARE AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. 



INTRODUCTION, 



The wisdom of tlie Cliiircli, wliicli conse- 
•crates tlie fleeting seasons of Time to tlie in- 
terests of Eternity, lias dedicated tlie montli of 
May (the birtliday festival, as it were, of 
Creation) to Iier wlio was ever destined in tlie 
Divine Counsels to become the Mother of her 
Creator. It belongs to her, of conrse, as she is 
the representative of the Incarnation, and its 
practical exponent to a world but too apt to 
forget what it professes to hold. The follow^- 
ing Poems, written in her honor, are an attempt 
to set fortli, though but in mere outline, each 
of them some oub of the great Ideas or essen- 
tial Principles embodied in that all-embracing 
Mystery. On a topic so comprehensive, con- 
verse statements, at one time illustrating the 



Vlll. INTRODUCTION. 

highest excellence compatible with mere crea- 
tnrely existence, at another, the infinite dis- 
tance between the chief of creatures and the 
Creator, may seem, at first sight, and to some 
eyes, contradictory, althongh in reality mutu- 
ally correlative. On an attentive perusal, 
however, that harmony which exists among 
the many portions of a single mastering Truth 
can hardly fail to appear — and with it the 
scope and aim of this Poem. 

"With the meditative, descriptive pieces have 
been interspersed. They are an attempt to- 
ward a Christian rendering of external nature. 
Nature, like Art, needs to be spiritualized, 
unless it is to remain a fortress in the hands of 
an adverse Power. The visible world is a 
passive thing, which ever takes its meaning 
from something above itself. In Pagan times^ 
it drew its interpretation from Pantheism ; and 
to Pantheism — nay, to that Idolatry which is 
the popular application of Pantheism — it has 
still a secret though restrained tendency, not 
betrayed by literature alone. A World with- 
out Divinity, Matter without Soul, is intolerable 



INTRODUCTIOK. IX. 

to the liiiman mind. Yet, on the other' hand, 
there is much in fallen hnman natnre which 
shrinks from the snblime thought of a Creator, 
and rests on that of a sheathed Diyinity dif- 
fused thronghont the nniverse, its life, not its 
maker. Mere ])ersonified elements, the "Wood- 
God and Eiver-JNTymph, captivate the fancy 
and do not overawe the sonl. For a bias so 
seductive, no cure is to he fonnd save in au- 
thentic Christianity, the only practical Theism. 
The Ajhole truth, on the long rmi, holds its 
own better than the half trnth; and minds 
repelled by the thought of a God who stands 
afar off, and created the nniverse but to aban- 
don it to general laws, fling themselves at the 
feet of a God made Man. In other words, 
the Incarnation is the Complement of Creation. 
In it is revealed the true nature of that link 
which binds together the visible and invisible 
worlds. When the " Word was made Flesh," 
a bridge was thrown across that gulf w^hich 
had else for ever separated the Finite from the 
Infinite. The same high Truth which brings 
home to us the doctrine of a Creation, conse- 



X. INTRODUCTION. 

crates that Creation, reconstituting it into an 
Eden meet for an nnfallen Adam and an un- 
fallen Eve ; nay, exalting it into a heavenly 
Jerusalem, the dwelling-place of the Lamb and 
of the Bride. If does this, in part, through 
symbols and associations founded on the all- 
cleansing Blood and the all-sanctifying Spirit 
— -symbols and associations the reverse of those 
in which an Epicurean mythology took delight, 
and which the very superfieial alone can con- 
found with such. . This is perhaps the aspect 
of Religion least above the level of poetry. 

As to its form, the present work belongs to 
the class of serial poems, a species of composi- 
tion happily revived in recent times, as by 
Wordsworth, in his " Ecclesiastical Sketches," 
and " Sonnets dedicated to Liberty," by Landor, 
and, with pre-eminent success, by the author of 
'^Li Memoriam." It was in common use 
among our earlier poets, Avho derived it from 
Petrarch and the Italians. Most often the in- 
terest of such poems was of a personal sort, as 
in the serial sonnets of Shakespeare, Spenser, 
Sidney, Drummond, Daniel, and Drajton ; 



INTRODUCTION. XI. 

as well as the "Aurora" of Lord Stirling, 
and tlie " Astrea" of Sir John Davies. Occa- 
sionally, it was of a more abstract character. 
In both cases, alike, advantage was derived 
from a method of writing which unites an in- 
definite degree of continnity with a somewhat 
lawless variety, and which gains in brevity by 
the omission of connecting bonds. In Herbert's 
" Temple," Yaughan's " SilexScintillans," and 
the chief poems of Donne and Crashaw, the 
unity is bnt that of kindred thoughts, and a 
common subject, not of a complete design. 
Habington's " Castara," a noble work too little 
known, combines a personal with an abstract 
interest. In it many poems on religions and 
philosophical subjects are grouped for support 
round a single centre ; that centre being the 
sustained homage paid by the poet to one not 
unworthy, apparently, of his reverence and 
love. 



CON'TEE'TS 



PiKOLOGTJB 



PAGE 
. 21 



MAY CAROXS. 
PARTI. 

Who feels not, when the spring once more 

Upon thy face, O God, thyworld 

All but unutterable name 

Sancta Maria ... 

Dei Genitrix .... 

Virgo Virginum . , , 

Ascending from the convent-grates 

Adolescentulse amaverunt te nimis 

Mater Christ! .... 

Mater Christi 

Mater Creatoris 

Mater Salvatoris 

Mater Dolorosa .... 

Mater Dolorosa 

Mater Admlrabilis 

Mater Amabilis 

Mater Filii . 

Mater Divinae Gratiae , 



25 
27 

28 
29 
30 
31 
33 
35 
36 
3T 
38 
39 
40 
41 
43 
43 
44 
45 



XIV. 



CONTENTS. 



Mater Divinse Gratios 

When April's sudden sunset cold 

As children when, with heavy tread 

Mariae Cliens . 

Fest. Visitationis 

Not yet, not yet ! the Season sings 

Fest. Nativitatis B. V. M. 

The moon, ascending o'er a mass 

A dream came to me while the night 

Fest.-Puriflcationis . 

Fest. Epiphanite . 

The sunless day is sweeter yet 

Legenda 



PART II. 

Conservabat in Corde 

Ascensio Domini 

Ascensio Domini 

Elias .... 

Stronger and steadier every hour . 

Speculum Justitise 

Munera . . . . . 

Predestinata 

Three worlds there are ; the first of sense 

Alas ! not only loveliest eyes . 

Idol atria . . . . 

Tota Pulchra 

Stella Matutina . . . . 

Janua Coeli .... 

If sense of man's unworthiness . 

Causa No strse Lsetitise 

Stella Maris . . . . 



CONTENTS. 


XV. 


. 


TAGS 


Blossom for ever, blossoming Eod ! 


95 


Uuica ...... 


96 


Magnificat ..... 


98 


Mystica . . 


99 


Expectatio ..... 


101 


Still on the gracious work proceeds 


. 103 


Turris Ebiirnea .... 


105 


Who doubts that thou art finite ? Who . 


. im 


They seek not, or amiss they seek 


108 


A sudden sun-burst in the woods 


. 109 


Dominica Pentecostes 


110 


Dominica Pentecostes .... 


. 112 


Turris Davidica .... 


114 


*' Tu solainteremisti omnes Hsereses" 


. 115 


PART III. 




In vain thine altars do they heap . 


. 119 


Babylon ..... 


120 


The golden rains are dashed against 


. 121 


Sedes Sapientise .... 


122 


Sedes Sapientise .... 


. 124 


Here, in this paradise of light 


125 


Fest. B. V. M. de Monte Carmelo 


. m 


Come from the midnight mountain tops 


' 129 


Advocata Nostra .... 


. 130 


Thronus Trinitatis .... 


131 


Cultus Sanctorum , a . . 


. 132 


Fest. S. S. Trinitatis . . . . 


134 


Where is the crocus now that first 


. 13G 


"AdNives" • . . . 


1ST 


Fest. Puritatis ... 


. 139 


Cloud-piercing mountains I Chance and Change 


141 



XVI. 



CONTENTS. 



Fcederis Area 

Domus Aiirea 

Respexit Humilitatem 

Respexit Humilitatem 

*' Sine Labe originali Concepta" . 

*' Sine Labe originali Concepta" 

Brow-bound with myrtle and with gold 

Corpus Christi 

Corpus Christi . 

Pleasant the swarm about the bough . 

Sing on, wide winds, your anthems vast 

Cceli enarrant 

Caro factus est . 

A woman " clothed with the sun" 

No ray of all their silken sheen . 

Epilogue 



PAGE 

143 
144 
145 
14t 
149 
151 
153 
154 
156 
158 
159 
160 
162 
164 
165 

169 



HYMNS AND POEM{ 

Hymn from St. Gertrude . . . . 

Hymn— The Feast of St. Peter's Chair at Antioch 

Hymn— The Feast of St. John the Baptist 

Hymn of Praise to God 

Hymn— The Feast of St. John the Evangelist 

Hymn— Translation of the " Stabat Mater'' 

Hymn on the Divine Humanity of Christ . 

Maunday Thursday .... 

An Ancient Legend and its Answer 

Legenda Aurea .... 

Impenitence 

Penance . . . . . 



173 
176 
180 
183 
187 
190 
193 
196 



200 
201 



CONTENT S . 



XVlt 



The Angel of the Way 

Questionings 

Trial 

The kindly Transcience 

Festnm Maternitatis 

Mater Christi 

In hora Mortis 

The Cavil 

The Veil 

The Letter and the Spirit 

" In Electis meis mitte Kadices'' 

Aiixilium Christianoruni 

The First Dolour 

The Second Dolour . 

The Third Dolour 

The Fourth Dolour . . ^ 

The Fifth Dolour 

The Sixth Dolour 

The Seventh Dolour 

The True Humanity . 



PAGS 

203 

204 
203 
20G 
20T 
209 
210 
211 
212 
214 
216 
217 
218 
219 
221 
223 
225 
22T 
228 



PROLOaUE. 



PROLOGUE. 

That sun-eyed Power whicli stands sublime 
Ujpon tlie rock that crowns our globe. 

Her feet on all tlie spoils of time, 
With liglit eternal on her robe, 

She, sovereign of the orb she guides, 
On Truth's broad sun may root a gdjze 

That deepens, onward as she rides, 
And shrinks not from the fontal blaze : 

But they — her daughter Arts — must hide 
Within the cleft, content to see 

Dim skirts of glory waving wide, 
And steps of parting Deity. 

'Tis theirs to watch Religion break 
In types from Nature's frown or smile. 

The legend rise from out the lake, 
The relic consecrate the isle. 



XXll. PROLOGUE. 

'Tis theirs to adumbrate and suggest ; 

To point toward founts of buried lore, 
Leaving, in reverence, unexpressed 

What Man must know not, yet adore. 

For where her court true Wisdom keeps, 
'Mid loftier handmaids, one there stands 

Dark as the midnight's starry deeps, 
A Slave, gem-crowned, from ISiubia's sands. 

O thou whose light is in thy heart 
Love-taught Submission ! without thee 

Science may soar awhile; but Art 
Drifts barren o'er a shoreless sea. 



MAY CAROLS, 



PART I. 



MAY CAEOLS 



PAET I. 



Who feels not, wlieii the Spring once more, 
Stepping o'er Winter's grave forlorn 

With winged feet, retreads the shore 
Of widowed Earth, his bosom burn ? 

As ordered flower succeeds to flower, . 

And May the ladder of her sweets 
Ascends, advancing hour by hour 

From scale to scale, what heart but beats 1 

Some Presence veiled, in fields and groves. 
That mingles rapture vf ith remorse ; — 

Some buried joy beside us moves, 

And thrills the soul with such discourse 



26 MAY CxYROLS. 

As they, perchance, that wondering pair 
Who to Emmaus bent their way, 

Hearing, heard not. Like them our prayer 
We make : — " The night is near us . . Stay !" 

With Paschal chants the churches ring; 

Their echoes strike along the tombs; 
The birds their Hallelujahs sing; 

Each flower with fioral incense fumes. 

Our long-lost Eden seems restored; 

As on we move with tearful eyes 
We feel through all the illumined sward 

Some upward-working Paradise. 



MAY CAROLS. 27 



n. 



FPON.Tliy face, O God, Thy world 
Looks ever up in love and awe; 

Thy stars, in circles onward hurled, 
Still weave the sacred chain of law. 

In alternating antiphons 

Stream sings to stream and sea to sea; 
And moons that set and sinking suns 

Obeisance make, 'O God, to Thee. 

The swallow, winter's rage o'erblown. 
Again, on warm May breezes borne, 

Revisiteth her haunts well-known; 
The lark is faithful to the morn. 

The whirlwind, missioned with its wings 
To drown the fleet and fell the tower. 

Obeys thee as the bird that sings 
Her love-chant in a fleeting shower. 

Amid an ordered universe 

Man's spirit only dares rebel : — 

With light, O God, its darkness pierce ! 
With love its raging chaos quell ! 



28 MAY CAROLS. 



III. 

All but unutterable ]^ame ! 

Adorable, yet awful, sound ! 
Thee can the sinful nations frame 

Save with their foreheads to the ground? 

Soul-searching and all-cleansing Fire 1 
To see Thy countenance w^ere to die: 

Yet how beyond the bound retire 
Of Thy serene immensity ? 

Thou mov'st beside us, if the spot 

We change — r a noteless, wandering tribe : 

The orbits of our life and thought 
In Thee their little arcs describe. 

In the dead calm, at cool of day, 

We hear Thy voice, and turn, and flee : — 

Thy love outstrips us on our way : 
From Thee, O God, we fly — to Thee. 



MAY CAROLS. 29 



SANCTxi MARIA. 



IV. 



Mary! To thee the humble cry. 

What seek they? Gifts to Pride unknown. 
They seek thy help — to pass thee by:-^ 

They murmur, " Show us but thy Son." 

The childlike heart shall enter in; 

The virgin soul its God shall see: — 
Motherland maiden pure from sin, 

Be thou the guide : the Way is He. 

The mystery high of God made Man 
Through thee to man is easier made: 

Pronounce the consonant who can 
Without the softer vowel's aid! 



30 MAY CAKOLS. 



DEI GENITRIX. 

V. 

I SEE Him: on tliy lap He lies 
'Mid that Judsean stable's gloom: 

O sweet, O awful Sacrifice ! 
He smiles in sleep, yet knows His doom. 

Thou gav'st Him life! But was not this 
That life which knows no parting breath? 

Unmeasured life? unwaning bliss? 
Dread Priestess, lo ! thou gav'st Him death I 

Beneath the tree thy mother stood: 
Beneath the cross thou too shalt stand: — 

O Tree of Life ! O bleeding Eood ! 
Thy shadow stretches far its hand. 

That God who made the sun and moon 
In swaddling bands lies dumb and bound ! — 

Love's Captive! darker prison soon 
Awaits Thee in the garden ground. 

He wakens. Paradise looks forth 
Beyond the portals of the grave. 

Life, life thou gavest I life to Earth, 
Not Him. Thine Infant dies to save. 



MAYCAROLS. 81 



VIRGO VIRGINUM. 



VT. 



"When from their lurking place tlie Voice 
Of God dragged forth that fallen pair, 

Still seemed the garden to rejoice; 
The sinless Eden still was fair. 

They, they alone, whose light of grace 

But late made Paradise look dim, 
Stood now, a blot upon its face. 

Before their God; nor gazed on Him. 

They glanced not up ; or they had seen 

In that severe, death-dooming Eye 
Unutterable depths serene 

Of sadly-piercing sympathy. 

Not them alone that Eye beheld, 
But, by their side, that other Twain, 

In whom the race whose doom was knelled 
Once more should rise ; once more should reign. 



33 M A Y C A B O L S . 

It saw that Infant crowned with blood ; — 
And her from whose predestined breast 

That Infant ruled the worlds. She stood, 
Her foot upon the serpent's crest! 

Yoice of primeval prophecy ! 

She who makes glad whatever heart 
Adores her Son and Saviour, she 

In thee, that hour, possessed a joart I 



MAY CAROLS, 33 



VII. 



AscENDiNa from the convent-grates, 
The children mount the woodland vale. 

'Tis May -Day Eve; and Hesper waits 
To light them, while the western gale 

Blows softly on their bannered line : 
And, lo ! down all the mountain stairs 

The shepherd children come to join 
The convent children at their prayers. 

They meet before Our Lady's fane : 
On yonder central rock it stands, 

Uplifting, ne'er invoked in vain, 
That cross which blesses all the lands. 

Before the porch the flowers are flung ; 

The lamp hangs glittering 'neath the Eood ; 
The "Maris Stella" hymn is sung ; 

Their chant each morn to be renewed. 

Ah ! if a secular muse might dare. 
Far off, the children's song to catch; 

To echo back, or burthen bear! — 
As fitly might she hope to match 
3 



34 MAYCAROLS. 

The linnet's note as theirs, 'tis true : 
Yet, now and then, that borrowed tone, 

Like sunbeams flashed on pine or yew. 
Might shoot a sweetness through her own ! 



M A Y C A R O L S . 35; 



ADOLESCENTUL^ AMAVERUISTT TE NIMIS. 

VIII. 

" Behold ! the wintry rains are past ; 
The airs of midnight hurt no more : 
The young maids love thee. Come at last : 
Thou lingerest at the garden-door. 

"Blow over all the garden; blow, 

Thou'wind that breathest of the south, 
Through all the alleys winding low, 
With dewy wing and honeyed mouth. 

"But wheresoe'er thou wanderest, shape 
Thy music ever to one Kame : — 
Thou, too, clear stream, to cave and cape 
Be sure thou whisper of the same. 

" By every isle and bower of musTi 
Thy crystal clasps, as on it curls. 
We charge thee, breathe it to the dusk ; 
We charge thee, grave it in thy pearls." 

The stream obeyed. That Name he bore 
Far out above the moon-lit tide. 

The breeze obeyed. He breathed it o'er 
The unforgetting pines; and died. 



36 MAYCAROLS. 



MATER CHEISTI. 

IX. 

Daily beneatli His mother's eye^ 
Her Lamb matured His lowliness: 

'Twas hers the lovely Sacrifice 
With fillet and with flower to dress. 

Beside His little cross He knelt : 

With human-heavenly lips He prayed: 

His Will within her will she felt; 
And yet His Will her will obeyed. 

Gethseman^ ! when day is done 
Thy flowers with falliug dew are wet : 

Her tears fell never; for the sun 

Those tears that brightened never set. 

The house was silent as that shrine 
The priest but entered once a year. 

There shone His emblem. Light Divine ! 
Thy presence and Thy power were here ! 



MAYCAROLS. 87 



MATER CHRISTI. 



He willed to lack; He willed to bear; 

He willed by sufFering to be schooled; 
He willed the chains of flesh to wear : 

Yet from her arms the worlds He ruled. 

As tapers 'mid the noontide glow 

With merged yet separate radiance burn, 

With human taste and touch, even sOj 
The things He knew He willed to learn. 

He sat beside the lowly door : 
His homeless eyes appeared to trace 

In evening skies remembered lore, 
And shadows of His Father's face. 

One only knew Him. She alone 
Who nightly to His cradle crept, 

And lying like the moonbeam prone, 
Worshipped her Maker as He slept. 



88 M A T C A R O L S . 

MATER CREATORIS. 

XI. 

Bud forth a Saviour, Earth ! fulfil 
Thy first of functions, ever new ! 

Balm-dropping heaven, for aye distil 
Thy grace like manna or like dew ! 

" To us, this da}^, a Child is bom." 
Heaven knows not mere historic facts : 

Celestial mysteries, night and morn, 
Live on in ever-present Acts. 

Calvary's dread Victim in the sides 
On God's great altar rests even now : 

The Pentecostal glory lies 
For ever round the Church's brow. 

From Son and Father, He, the Lord 
Of Love and Life, proceeds alway: 

Upon the first creative word 

Creation, trembling, hangs for aye. 

Nor less ineffably renewed 
Than when on earth the tie began, 

Is that mysterious Motherhood 
Which re-creates the worlds and man. 



M A Y C A R O L S , 39 

IIATER SALVATOBIS. 

XII. 

Heart with His in just accord ! 

O Soul His echo, tone for tone ! 
O Spirit that heard, and kept His word! 

O Countenance moulded like His own! 

Behold, she seemed on Earth to dwell; 

But, hid in light, alone she sat 
Beneath the Throne ineffable, 

Chanting her clear Magnificat. 

Fed from the boundless heart of God, 
The joy within her rose more high 

And all her being overflowed, 
Until the awful hour was nigh. 

Then, then, there crept her spirit o'er 
The shadow of that pain world-wide 

Whereof her Son the substance bore : — 
Him offering, half in Him she died ; 

Standing like that strange Moon, whereon 
The mask of Earth lies dim and dead, 

An orb of glory, shadow-strewn, 
Yet girdled with a luminous thread. 



40 MAY CAROLS. 



MATER DOLOEOSA. 

XIII, 

She stood: slie sank not. Slowly fell 
Adown tlie Cross tlie atoning blood. 

In agony ineffable 

Slie offered still His own to God. 

No pang of His lier bosom spared ; 

She felt in Him its several power. 
But slie in heart His Priesthood shared: 

She offered Sacrifice that hour. 

" Behold thy Son ! " Ah, last bequest ! 

It breathed His last farewell! The sword 
Predicted pierced that hour her breast. 

She stood: she answered not a word. 

His own in John He gave. She wore 
Thenceforth the Mother-crown of Earth. 

O Eve ! thy sentence too she bore ; 
liike thee in sorrow she brought forth. 



MAY CAROLS. 41 



MATER DOLOROSA. 



XIV. 



From her He passed: yet still with her 
The endless thought of Him found rest ; 

A sad but sacred branch of myrrh 
For ever folded in her breast. 

A Boreal winter void of light — 

So seemed her widowed days forlorn: 

She slept; but in her breast all night 
Her heart lay waking till the morn. 

Sad flowers on Calvary that grew ; — 
Sad fruits that ripened from the Cross ; — 

These were the only joys she knew: 
Yet all but these she counted loss. 

Love strong as Death! She lived through thee 
That mystic life whose every breath 

From Life's low harpstring amorously 
Draws out the sweetened name of Death. 

Love stronger far than Death or Life ! 

Thy martyrdom was o'er at last. 
Her eyelids drooped; and without strife 

To Him she loved her spirit passed. 



42 . MAYCABOLS. 



MATER ADMIRABILIS. 

XV. 

O Mothek-Maid! to none save thee 

Belongs in full a Parent's name; 
So fruitful thy Virginity, 

Thy Motherhood so pure from blame! 

All other parents, what are they? 

Thy types. In them thou stoocVst rehearsed 
(As they in bird, and bud, and spray). 

Thine Antitype ? The Eternal First ! 

Prime Parent He : and next Him thou ! 

Overshadowed by the Father's Might, 
Thy ''Fiat" was thy bridal vow; 

Thine offspring He, the " Light of Light." 

Her Son Thou wert: her Son Thou art, 

O Chi^st ! Her substance fed Thy growth :— 

She shaped Thee in her virgin heart. 
Thy Mother and Thy Father both ! 



MAYCAROLS. 43 



MATER AilABILIS. 

XVI. 

Mother of Love 1 Thy love to Him 
Cherub and seraph can but guess : — 

A mother sees its image dim 
In her own breathless tenderness. 

That infant touch none else could feel 
Vibrates like light through all her sense : 

Far off she hears his cry : her zeal 
With lions fights in his defence. 

Unmarked his youth goes by: his hair 

Still smooths she down, still strokes apart: 

The first w^hite thread that meets her there 
Glides, like a dagger, through her heart. 

Men praise him: on her matron cheek 
There dawns once more a maiden red. 

Of war, of battle-fields they speak: 
She sees once more his father dead. 

In sickness — half in sleep — she hears 
His foot, ere yet that foot is nigh : 

Wakes with a smile ; and scarcely fears, 
If he but clasp her hand, to die. 



44^ MAYCAKOLS. 



MATER FILII. 

XVII. 

Others, tlie hours of youth gone by, 
A mother's hearth and home forsake; 

And, with the need, the filial tie 
Eelaxes, though it does not break. 

But Thou wert born to be a Son. 

God's Son in heaven, Thy will was this, 
To pass the chain of Sonship on. 

And bind in one whatever is. 

Thou cam'st the Son of Man to be. 
That so Thy brethren too might bear 

Adoptive Sonship, and with Thee 
Thy Sire's eternal kingdom share. 

Transcendently the Son Thou art: 
In this mysterious bond entwine, 

As in a single, two-celled heart. 
Thy natures, human and divine. 



MAYCAPvOLS. 45 



MATER DIVINE GRATIS. 

xvm. 

" They have no wine." The tender guest 

Was grieved their feast should lack for aught. 

He seemed to slight her mute request: 

Kot less the grace she wished He wrought. 

O great in Love ! O full of Grace ! 

That winds in thee, a river broad, 
From Christ, with heaven-reflecting face, 

Gladdening the City of thy God : — 

Be this thy gift ; that man henceforth 

No more should creep through life content 

(Draining the springs impure of earth) 
With life's material element. 

Let sacraments to sense succeed; 

Let nought be winning, nought be good 
Which fails of Him to speak, and bleed 

Once more with His all-cleansing blood ! 



46 MAYCAROLl 



MATER DIVINE GRATIS. 

XIX. 

The gifts a mother showers each day 
Upon her softly-clamorous brood: 

The gifts they value but for play, — 
The graver gifts of clothes and food, — 

Whence come they but from him who sows 
With harder hand, and reaps, the soil; 

The merit of his laboring brows, 
The guerdon of his manly toil ?. 

From Him the Grace : through her it stands 

Adjusted, meted, and applied; 
And ever, passing through her hands, 

Enriched it seems, and beautified. 

Love's mirror doubles Love's caress: 
Love's echo to Love's voice is true: — 

Their Sire the children love not less 
Because they clasp a Mother too. 



MAY CAROLS. 47 



XX. 

When April's sudden sunset cold 

Througli boughs lialf-clothed with watery sheen 
Bursts on the high, new-cowslipped wold, 

And bathes a world half gold half green, 

Then shakes the illuminated air 

"With din of birds; the vales far down 

Grow phosphorescent here and there; 
Forth fiash the turrets of the town; 

Along the sky thin vapors scud ; 

Bright zephyrs curl the choral main; 
The wild ebullience of the blood 

Eings joy-bells in the heart and brain : 

Yet in that music discords mix ; 

The unbalanced lights like meteors play; 
And, tired of splendors that perplex, 

The dazzled spirit sighs for May. 



48 MAYCAROLS. 



XXI. 

As children when, with heavy tread, 

Men sad of face, unseen before, 
Have borne away their mother dead — 

So stand the nations thine no more. 

From room to room those children roam, 
Heart-stricken by the unwonted black: 

Their house no longer seems their home : 
They search; yet know not what they lack. 

Years pass: Self- Will and Passion strike 
Their roots more deeply day by day; 

Old servants weep; and ''how unlike" 
Is all the tender neighbors say. 

And yet at moments, like a dream, 
A mother^s image o'er them flits: 

Like hers their eyes a moment beam; 
The voice grows soft; the brow unknits. 

Such, Mary, are the realms once thine, 
That know no more thy golden reign. 

Hold forth from heaven thy Babe divine! 
O make thine orphans thine again ! 



MAYCAROLS. 49 



MARI^ CLIEKS. 



XXII. 



A LITTLE longer on the earth 
That aged creature's eyes repose 

(Though half their light and all their mirth 
Are gone) ; and then for ever close. 

She thinks that something done long since 
111 pleases God: — or wh}' should He 

So long delay to take her hence 
Who waits His will so lovingly ? 

Whene'er she hears the church-bells toll 
She lifts her head, though not her eyes, 

With wrinkled hands, but youthful soul, 
Counting her lip-worn rosaries. 

And many times the weight of years 
Falls from her in her waking dreams: 

A child her mother's voice she hears : 
To tend her father's steps she seems. 
4 



00 MAY CAROLS. 

Once more she hears the whispermg rains 
On flowers and paths her childhood trod ; 

And of things jDresent nought remains 
Save the abiding sense of God. 

Mary ! make smooth her downward way ! 

Not dearer to the young thou art 
Than her. Make glad her latest May; 

And hold her, dying, on thy heart. 



MAYCAROLS. 51 

TEST. VISITATIONIS. 

XXIII. 

The hilly region crossed "with haste, 
Its last dark ridge discerned no more, 

Bright as the bow that spans a waste 
She stood beside her Cousin's door ; 

And spake:— that greeting came from God! 

Filled with the Spirit from on high 
Sublime the aged Mother stood, 

And cried aloud in j)rophecy, — 

" Soon as thy voice had touched mine ears 
The child in childless age conceived 

Leaped up for joy ! Throughout all years 
Blessed the woman who believed." 

Type of Electing Love! 'tis thine 
To speak God's greeting from the skies I 

Thy voice we hear : thy Babe divine 
At once, like John, we recognize. 

Within our hearts the second birth 
Exults, though blind as yet and dumb. 

The child of Grace his hands puts forth 
And prophesies of things to come. 



5^ MAYCAROLS. 



XXIV. 



Not yet, not yetl^tlie Season sings 
Not of fruition yet, but liope ; 

Still liolds aloft, like balanced wings, 
Her scales, and lets not either drop. 

The white ash, last year's skeleton. 

Still glares, uncheered by leaf or shoot, 

'Gainst azure heavens, and joy hath none 
In that fresh violet at her foot. 

Yet Nature's virginal suspense 

Is not forgetfulness nor sloth: 
Where'er we wander, soul and sense 

Discern a blindly working growth. 

Her throne once more the daisy takes, 
That white star of our dusky earth ; 

And the sky-cloistered lark down-shakes 
Her passion of seraphic mirth. 

'Twixt barren hills and clear cold skies 
She weaves, ascending high and higher, 

Songs florid as those traceries 
Which took, of old, their name from fire. 



MAY CAROLS. 53 

Sing! thou that neecl'st no ardent clime 
To sun the sweetness from thy breast; 

And teach us those delights sublime 
Wherein ascetic spirits rest. 



54 MAYCAKOLs 



FEST. NATiyiTATIS B. V. M. 



XXV. 

When thou wert born the murmuring world 
Eollecl on, nor dreamed of things to be, 

From joy to sorrow madly whirled ; — 
Despair disguised in revehy. 

A princess thou of David's line ; 

The mother of the Prince of Peace ; 
That hour no royal pomps were thine: 

The earth alone her boon increase 

Before thee poured. September rolled 
Down all the vine-clad Syrian slopes 

Her breadths of purple and of gold; 
And birds sang loud from olive tops. 

Perhaps old foes, they knew not why, 
Eelented. From a fount long sealed 

Tears rose, perhaps, to Pity's eye : 

Love-harvests crowned the barren field. 



MAYCAROLS. 55 

The respirations of the year, 

At least, grew soft. O'er valleys wide 
Pine-roughened crags again shone clear; 

And the great Temple, far descried, 

To watchers, watching long in vain. 
To patriots grey, in bondage nursed, 

Flashed back their hope — "The Second Fane 
In glory shall surpass the First !" 



56 MAY CABOLS. 



XXVI. 

The moon, ascending o'er a mass 
Of tangled yew and sable pine, 

"What sees she in yon watery glass? 
A tearful countenance divine. 

Far down, the winding hills between, 
A sea of vapor bends for miles, 

Unmoving. Here and there, dim-seen, 
The knolls above it rise like isles. 

The tall rock glimmers, spectre-white; 

The cedar in its sleep is stirred; 
At times the bat divides the night; 

At times the far-off liogd is heard. 

Above, that shining blue ! — below. 

That shining mist ! Oh, not more pure 

Midwinter's landscape, robed in snow, 
And fringed with frosty garniture. 

The fragrance of the advancing year — 
That, that assures us it is May. 

Ah, tell me! in the heavenlier sphere 
Must all of earth have passed away? 



MAY CAROLS. 57 



XXVII. 



A DREAM came to me wliile tlie niglit 
Thinned off before the breath of morn, 

Which filled my soul with such delight 
As hers who clasps a babe new-born. 

I saw — in countenp.nce like a child — 

(Three years methought were hers, no more) 

That maid and mother undefiled 
The Saviour of the world who bore. 

A nun-like veil was o'er her thrown ; 

Her locks by fillet-bands made fast. 
Swiftly she climbed the steps of stone ; — 

Into the Temple swiftly passed. 

Not once she paused her breath to take; 

Kot once cast back a homeward look: — - 
As longs the hart his thirst to slake, 

When noontide rages, in the brook, 

So longed that child to live for God ; 

So pined, from earth's enthralments free, 
To bathe her wholly in the flood 

Of God's abysmal purity! 



58 MAY CAROLS. 

Anna and Joacliim from far 

Their eyes on that white vision raised : 
And when, like caverned foam or star 

Cloud-hid, she vanished, still they gazed. 



MAY CAROLS* 59 



FEST. PURIFICATIONIS. 

XXVIII. 

Twelve years had passed, and, still a child, 
In brightness of the unblemished face. 

Once more she scaled those steps, and smiled 
On Him who slept in her embrace. 

As in she passed there fell a calm 
Around: each bosom slowly rose 

Like the long branches of the palm 

When under them the south wind blows. 

The scribe forgot his wordy lore ; 

The chanted psalm was heard far off; 
Hushed was the clash of golden ore ; 

And hushed the Sadducean scoff. 

Type of the Christian Church ! 'twas thine 
To offer, first, to God that hour. 

Thy Son — the Sacrifice Divine, 
The Church's everlasting dower ! 



GO M A Y C A 11 O L S . 

Great Priestess ! round that aureoled brow 
Wliicli cloud or shadow ne'er liad crossed, 

Began there not that hour to grow 
A milder dawn of Pentecost? 



MAY CABOLS. 61 



FEST. EFIPHANI^. 

XXIX. 

A VEIL is on the face of Truth: 
She prophesies behind a cloud; 

She ministers, in robes of ruth, 
ISTocturnal rites, and disallowed. 

Eleusis hints, but dares not speak; 

The Orphic minstrelsies are dumb ; 
Lost are the Sibyl's books, and weak 

Earth's olden faith in Him to come. 

But ah, but ah, that Orient Star! 

On straw-roofed shed and large-eyed kiue 
It flashes, guiding from afar 

The Magians to the Child Divine. 

Gold, frankincense, and myrrh they bring — 
Love, Worship, Life severe and hard : 

Well pleased the symbol gifts the King 
Accepts; and Truth is their reward. 

Rejoice, O Sion, for thy night 

Is past : the Lord, thy Light, is born. 

The Gentiles shall behold thy light; 
The kings walk forward in thy morn. 



63 M A Y C A R O L S . 



The sunless day is sweeter yet 

Than when the golden sun-showers danced 
On bower new-glazed or rivulet; 

And Spring her banners first advanced. 

By wind unshaken hang in dream 

The wind-flowers o'er their dark green lair; 
And those thin poppy cups that seem 

Not bodied forms, but woven of air. 

Nor bird is heard ; nor insect flits. 

A tear-drop glittering on her cheek, 
Composed but shadowed, Nature sits — 

Yon primrose not more staid and meek. 

The light of pensive hope unquenched 
On those pathetic brows and eyes, 

She sits, by silver dew-showers drenched. 
Through which the chill spring-odors rise. 

Was e'er on human countenance shed 
So sweet a sadness? Once: no more. 

Then when his charge the Patriarch led 
Dream-warned to Egypt's distant shore. 



MAYCAROLS. C3 

Down on lier Infant Mary gazed ; 

Her face tlie angels marked with awe; 
Yet 'neatli its dimness, undisplaced, 

Looked forth that smile the Magians saw. 



64 M A Y C A n O L s . 



LEGEND A. 



XXXI. 



As, flying Herod, southward went 
That Child and Mother, unamazed, 

Into Egyptian banishment, 
The weeders left their work, and gazed. 

The bright One spake to them and said, 
"When Herod's messengers demand. 

Passed not the Infant, Herod's dread, — 
Passed not the Infant through your land? 

**Then shall ye answer make, and say, 
Behold, since first the corn was green 
No little Infant passed this way; 
No little Infant we have seen." 

Earth heard ; nor missed the Maid's intent — 
As on the Flower of Eden jpassed 

With Eden swiftness up she sent 
A sun-browned harvest ripening fast. 

By simplest words and sinless wheat 
The messengers rode back beguiled; 

And by that truthfulest deceit 
Which saved the little new-born Child ! 



MAY CAROLS 



PART II. 



\ II O L 9 . 67 



PAET II. 
CONSERYABAT IN CORDE. 



As every change of April sky 

Is imaged in a placid brook. 
Her meditative memory 

Mirrored Ills every deed and look. 

As suns through summer ether rolled 
Mature each grov/th the spring has wrought, 

So Love's stroi)g day-star turned to gold 
Her harvests of quiescent thought. 

Iler soul was as a vase, and shone 

Translucent to an inner ray ; 
Iler Maker's finger wrote thereon 

A mystic Bible new each day. 

Deep Heart ! In all His sevenfold might 

The Paraclete with thee abode ; 
And, sacramented there in light, 

Bore witness of the things of God. 



G8 MAY CAROLS. 



ASCENSIO DOMIOT. 

II. 

Eejoice, O Earth, thy crown is won! 

Rejoice, rejoice, ye heavenly host! 
And thou, the Mother of the Son, 

Rejoice the first: rejoice the most I 

Who caj)tivc led «aptivity — 

From Hades' void circumference 
Who led the Patriarch Band on high, 

There rules, and sends us graces thence. 

Rejoice, glad Earth, o'er winter's grave 
With altars wa^eathed and clarions blown ; 

And thou, the Race Redeemed, outbrave 
The rites of nature with thine own 1 

Rejoice, O Mary! thou that long 
Didst lean thy breast upon the sword — 

Sad nightingale, the Spirit's song 
That sang'st all night! He reigns, restored! 

Rejoice ! He goes, the Paraclete 

To send ! Rejoice ! He reigns on high ! 

The sword lies broken at thy feet — 
His triumph is thy victory ! 



MAYCABOLS. 69 



ASCENSIO DOMINI. 



III. 



I TAKE this reed— I know the hand 
That wields it must ere long be dust — 

And write, upon the fleeting sand 
Each wind can shake, the words, "I trust." 

And if that sand one day was stone 
And stood in courses near the sky, 

For towers b^ earthquake overthrown. 
Or mouldering piecemeal, what care I ? 

Things earthly perish : life to death 
And death to life in turn succeeds. 

The spirit never perisheth : 
The chrysalis its Psyche breeds. 

True life alone is that which soars 
To Him who triumphed o'er the grave; 

With Him, on life's eternal shores, 
I trust one day a part to have. 

All, hark! above the springing corn 
That chime ; in every breeze it swells ! 

Ye bells that wake the Ascension morn, 
Ye give us back our Paschal bells ! 



70 MAY CAROLS. 



ELIAS. 



IV. 



O THOU that rodest up the skies, 

Thy task fulfilled, on steeds of fire, — 

That somewhere, sealed from mortal eyes, 
Some ah' immortal dost respire ! 

Thou that in heavenly beams enshrined. 
In quiet lulled of soul and flesh, 

With one great thought of Cro jL thy mind 
Dost everlastingly refresh ! 

Where art thou ? age succeeds to age ; 

Thou dost not hear their fret and jar: 
With thy celestial hermitage 

Successive winters wage not war. 

Still as a corse with field-fiowers strewn 
Thou liest ; on God thine eyes are bent : 

And the fire-breathing stars alone 
Look in vipon thy cloudy tent. 

Behold, there is a debt to pay ! 

Like Enoch, hid thou art on high : 
But both shall back return one day, 

To gaze once more on earth, and die. 



MAYCAROLS, 71 



Stronger and steadier every hour 

The pulses of the season's glee, 
As toward her zenit'h climbs that Power 

Which rules the purple revelry. ^ 

Trees, that from winter's grey eclipse 
Of late but pushed their topmost plume, 

Or felt with green-touched finger-tips 
For spring, their perfect robes assume. 

Like one that reads, not one that spells, 
The unvarying rivulet onward runs: 

And bird to bird, from leafier cells, 
Sends forth more leisurely response. 

Through the gorse covert bounds the deer : — 
The gorse, wliose latest splendors won 

Make all the fulgent wolds appear 
Bright as the pastures of the sun. 

A balmier zephyr curls the wave ; 

More purple flames o'er ocean dance ; 
And the whito breaker by the cave 

Falls with more cadenced resonance; 



72 MAYCAROLS. 

While vague no more the mountain^ stand 
With quivering line or hazy hue; 

But drawn with liner, firmer hand, 
And settling into deeper blue. 



MAYCAROLS. 73 



SPECULUM JUSTITI^. 

VI. 

Not in Himself the Eternal Word 
Lay liid upon creation's day: 

His Loveliness abroad He poured 

On all tlie worlds; and pours for aye. 

Not in Himself the Incarnate Son, 
In whom Man's race is born again, 

His glory hides. The victory won. 
He rose to send His " Gifts on Men." 

In sacrament — His dread behests; 

In Providence ; in granted prayer ; 
Before the time He manifests 

His glory, far as man may bear. 

He shines not from a vault of gloom; 

The horizon vast His splendor paints: 
Both heaven and earth His beams illume; 

His light is glorious in His saints. 
>* 
He shines upon His Church — that Moon 

Who, in the watches of the night, 
Transmits to man the entrusted boon; 

A sister orb of sacred light. 



74 M A Y C A 11 O L S . 

And thou, pure mirror of His grace ! — 
As sun reflected in a sea — 

So, Mary, feeblest eyes tlie face 
Of Him thou lovcst discern in thee. 



M A Y C A II O L S . 75 



MUNERA. 



VII. 



Not for herself does Mary hold 

Among the saints that queenly throne, 

Her seat predestined from of old; 
But for the brethren of her Son. 

Pure thoughts that make to God their quest, 
With her find footing o'er the clouds ; 

Like those sea-crossing birds that rest 
A moment on the sighing shrouds. 

In her our hearts* no longer nursed 
On dust, for spiritual beauty yearn; 

From her our instincts, as at first, 
An upward gravitation learn. 

Her distance makes her not remote: 
For in true love's supernal sphere 

1^0 more round self the afi'ections float — 
More near to God, to man more near. 

In her, the weary warfare past, 
The port attained, the exile o'er, 

We see the Church's barque at last 
Close-anchored on the eternal shore I 



76 M A Y C A II O L S . 



'PREDESTESTATA. 



VIII. 



Eternal Beauty, ere the spheres 

Had rolled from out tlie gulfs of night, 

Sparkled, through all the unnumbered years,' 
Before the Eternal Father's sight. 

Like objects seen by man in dream. 
Or landscape glassed on morning mist, 

Before His eyes it hung — a gleam 

Flashed from the eternal Thought of Christ. 

It stood the Archetype sublime 
Of that fair world of finite things 

Which, in the bands of Sj^ace and Time, 
Creation's glittering verge enrings. 

Star-like within the depths serene 

Of that still vision, Mary, thou 
With Him, thy Son, of God wert seen 

Millenniums ere the lucid brow 



MAYCAKOLS. 77 

Of Eve o'er Eden founts had bent, — 

Millenniums ere that second Pair 
With dust the hopes of man had blent, 

And stained the brightness once so fair. 

Elect of Creatures ! Man in thee 

Beholds that primal Beauty yet, — 
Sees all that Man was formed to be, — 

Sees all that Man can ne'er forget I 



78 31 A Y C A E O L S . 



IX. 



Three worlds there are: — the first of Sense- 
That sensuous earth which round us lies; 

The next of Faith's Intelligence ; 
The third of Glory, in the skies. 

The first is palpable, but bas€; 

The second heavenly, but obscure ; 
The third is star-like in the face — 

But ah ! remote that world as pure ! 

Yet, glancing through our misty clime, 
Some sparkles from that loftier sphere 

Make way to earth : — then most what time 
The annual spring-flowers re-appear. 

Amid the coarser needs of earth 
All shapes of brightness, what are they 

But wanderers, exiled from their birth, 
Or pledges of a happier day ? 

Yea, what is Beauty, judged aright. 
But some surpassing, transient gleam; 

Some smile from heaven, in waves of light, 
Rippling o'er life's distempered dream ? 



M A Y C A 11 O L S . 79 

Or broken memories of that bliss 

Wliicli rusliecl through first-born Nature's blood 
When He v/ho ever was, and is, 

Looked down, and saw that all was good? 



80 MAY CAROLS. 



Alas ! not only loveliest eyes, 

And brows with lordliest lustre briglit, 
But Nature's self— lier woods and skies — 

The credulous heart can cheat or blight. 

And why ? Because the sin of man 

Twixt Fair and Good has made divorce ; 

And stained, since Evil first began, 
That stream so heavenly at its source. 

O perishable vales and groves! 

Your master was not made for you; 
Ye are but creatures: human loves 

Are to the great Creator due. 

And yet, through Nature's symbols dim, 
There are with keener sight that i)iercG 

The outward husk, and reach to Him 
Whose garment is the universe. 

For this to earth the Saviour came 
In flesh : in part for this He died ; 

That man might have, in soul and frame, 
No faculty unsanctified. 



MAYCAROLS. Bl 

That Fancy's self— so prompt to lead 
Through paths disastrous or defiled — 

Upon the Tree of Life might feed ; 
And Sense with Soul be reconciled. 



33 MAYCAROLS, 



IDOLATMA. 



XI. 



The fancy of an ^ gone by, 
When Fancy's self to eartli declined, 

Still thirsting for Divinity, 
Yet still, through sense, to Godhead blind. 

Poor mimic of that Truth of old. 

The patriarchs' hope— a faith revealed— 

Compressed its God in mortal mould. 
The prisoner of Creation's field. 

Nature and Nature's Lord were one! 

Then countless gods from cloud and stream 
Glanced forth; from sea, and moon, and sim: 

So ran the pantheistic dream. 

And thus the All-Holy, thus the All-True, 
The One Supreme, the Good, the Just, 

Like mist was scattered, lost like dew, 
And vanished in the wayside dust. 



MAY CAROLS. 83 



Mary ! through thee the idols fell : 

When He the nations longed for* came — 

True God yet Man — with man to dwell, 
The phantoms hid their heads for shame. 



His place or thine removed, ere long 
The bards would push the sects aside; 

And lifted by the might of song 
Olympus stand re-edified. 

* " The Desire of the Nations." 



84 M A Y C A R O L S . 



TOTA PULCHRA. 



A EHOKEK gleam ou wave and flower — 
A music that in utterance dies — 

O Poets, and O Men ! what more 
Is all that Beauty which ye prize ? 

And ah ! how oft Corruption works 

Through that brief Beauty's force or wile ! 

How oft a gloom eternal lurks 
Beneath an evanescent smile ! 

But thou, serene and smiling light 
Of every grace redeemed from Sense, 

In thee all harmonies unite 

That charm a pure Intelligence. 

Whatever teaches mind or heart 

To God by loveliest types to mount, 

Mary, is thine. Of each true Art 
The parent art thou, and the fount. 



MAY CAROLS. i 

Tliose pictures, fair as moon or star, 
The ages dear to Faith brought forth. 

Formed but the illumined calendar 

Of her, that Church which knows thy worth. 

l^ot less doth Nature teach through thee 
That mystery hid in hues and lines: 

Who loves thee not hath lost the key 
To all her sanctuaries and shrines. 



86 MAY CAROLS, 



STELLA MATUTINA. 

XIII. 

Shine out, O Star, and sing the praise 
Of that unrisen Sun whose glow 

Thus feeds thee with thine earlier rays — - 
The secret of thy song we know. 

Thou sing'st that Sun of Righteousness, 
Sole light of this benighted globe, 

Whose beams, reflected, dressed and dress 
His Mother in her shining robe. 

Pale Lily, pearled around with dew, 
Lift high that heaven-illumined vase, 

And sing the glories ever new 

Of her, God's chalice, " full of grace." 

Cerulean Ocean, fringed with white, 
That wear'st her colors evermore, 

In all thy pureness, all thy might, 
Eesound her name from shore to shore. 



MAYCAROLS. 87 

That fringe of foam, when drops the sun 
To-night, a sanguine stain shall wear: — 

Thus Mary's heart had strength, alone, 
The passion of her Lord to share. 



88 MAYCAROLS, 



"JANUA CCELi;' 



XIV. 



The night tlirougli yonder cloudy cleft, 
"With many a lingering last regard, 

Withdraws — but slowly — and hath left 
Her inantle on the dewy sward. 

The lawns with silver dews are strewn ; 

The winds lie hushed in cave and tree ; 
Nor stirs a flower, save one alone 

That bends beneath the earliest bee. 

Peace over all the garden broods ; 

Pathetic sweets the thickets throng; 
Like breath the vapor o'er the woods 

Ascends — dim woods without a song; 

Or hangs, a shining, fleece-like mass 
O'er half yon lake that winds afar 

Among the forests, still as glass. 
The mirror of that Morning Star 



MAYCAROLS. 89 

WMcIi, halfway wandering from the sky, 

Amid the 'rose of morn delays 
And (large and less alternately) 

Bends down a lustrous, tearful gaze. 

Mother and home of spirits blest ! 

Bright gate of Heaven and golden bower! 
Thy best of blessings, love and rest, 

Depart not till on earth thou shower I 



90 MAYCAROLS. 



XV. 

If sense of Man's unwortliiness 
Witli iN'ature's blameless looks at strife, 

Should wake with wakening May, and j>res3 
New-born contentment out of life : 

If thoughts of sable breed and blind 

Should stamp upon the springing flower, 

Or blacker memories haunt the mind 
As ravens haunt the ruined tower: — 

O then how sweet in heart to breathe 
Those pure Judean gales once more; 

From Bethlehem's crib to Kazareth 
In heart to tread that Syrian shore ! 

To watch that star-like Infant bring 
To one of soul as clear and white 

May-lilies, fresh from Siloa's spring, 
Or Passion-flower with May-dews bright I 

To follow, earlier yet, the feet 
Of her the "hilly land" who trod 

With true love's haste, intent to greet 
That aged saint beloved of God. 



MAYCAROLS. 91 

Before lier, like a stream let loose, 
The long vale's flowerage, winding, ran : 

Nature resumed her Eden use; 
And Earth was reconciled with Man. 



92 MAY CAROLS. 



CAUSA ISrOSTR^ L^TITI^. 

XVI. 

Whate'er is floral on the earth 

To thee, O Flower, of right belongs ; 

Whatever is musical in mirth, 
Whatever is jubilant in songs. 

Childhood and springtide never cease 
For him thy freshness keeps from stain: 

Dew-drenched for him, like Gideon's fleece, 
The dusty paths of life remain. 

Spirit of Brightness and qf Bliss ! 

Thou threaten'st none ! A sinless lure, 
Thy fragrance and thy gladsomeness 

Draw on to Christ; to Christ secure. 

Hope, Hope is Strength ! That joy of thine 

To us is Glory's earliest ray ! 
Through Faith's dim air, O star benign. 

Look down, and light our onward way ! 



M A Y C A R O L S . 93 



STELLA MARIS. 



XVII. 



I LEFT at morn that blissful shore 

O'er v/hich the fruit-bloom fluttered free; 

And sailed the wildering waters o'er, 
Till sunset streaked with blood the sea. 

My sleep the hoarse sea-thunders broke, 
And sudden chill. Their feet foam-hid, 

Huge cliffs leaned out, through vapor-smoke, 
Like tower, and tomb, and pyramid. 

In the black shadow, ghostly white 
The breaker raced o'er foaming shoals : 

Froni caverns of eternal night 

Came wailings, as of suffering souls. 

Sudden, through clearing mists, the star 

Of ocean o'er the billow rose : 
Down dropped the elemental war; 

Tormented chaos found repose. 



94 MAYCAROLS. 

Star of the ocean ! dear art tliou, 
All ! not to eartli and lieaven alone : 

The suffering Church, when shines thy brow 
Upon her x^enance, stays her moan. 

The Holy Souls draw in their breath; 

The sea of anguish rests in peace ; 
And, from beyond the gates of death, 

Up swell the anthems of release. 



MAY CABOLS. 95 



XVIII. 

Blossom for ever, blossoming Kocl ! 

Thou clid'st not blossom once to die : 
That Life which, issuing forth from God, 

Thy life enkindled, runs not dry. 

Without a root in sin-stained earth, 
'Twas thine to bud Salvation's flower. 

No single soul the Church brings forth 
But blooms from thee and is thy dower. 

Rejoice, O Eve ! thy promise waned ; 

Transgression nipt thy flower with frost : 
But, lo ! a mother man hath gained 

Holier than she in Eden lost. 



96 MAY CAROLS, 



UNICA. 



XIX. 



While all the breathless woods aloof 
Lie hush'd in noontide's deep repose, 

That dove, sun-warmed on yonder roof. 
With what a grave content she coos ! 

One note for her! Deep streams run smooth: 
The ecstatic song of transience tells. 

O what a depth of loving truth 
In thy divine contentment dwells ! 

All day, with down-dropt lids, I sat 
In trance; the present scene foregone. 

When Hespcr rose, on Ararat, 
Methought, not English hills, he shone. 

Back to the ark, the waters o'er, 
The i)rimal dove pursued her flight: 

A branch of that blest tree she bore 

Which feeds the Church with holy light. 



MAYCAROLS. 97 

I lieard lier rustling through the air 
"With sliding plume — no sound beside 

Save the sea-sobbings everywhere, 
And sighs of that subsiding tide. 



08 MAY CAROLS. 



MAGNIFICAT. 



XX. 



She took the timbrel, as the tide 
Rushed, reflueut, up the Red Sea shore: 

" The Lord hath triumphed," she cried : 
Her song rang out above the roar 

Of lustral waves that, wall to wall, 
Fell back upon the host abhorred : 

Above the gloomy watery pall. 
As eagles soar, her anthem soared. 

Miriam, rejoice ! a mightier far 

Than thou, one day shall sing with thee ! 
Who rises, brightening like a star 

Above yon bright baptismal sea ? 

That harp which David touched who rears 
Heaven-high above those waters wide? 

The Prophet-Queen ! Througliout all years 
She sings the Triumph of the Bride ! 



M A Y C A R O L S . 99 



MYSTICA. 



XXI. 



As- pebbles flung for sport, that leap 

Along the superficial tide, 
But enter not those chambers deep 

Wherein the beds of pearl abide ; 

Suth those light minds that, grazing, spurn 
The surface text of Sacred Lore, 

Yet ne'er its deeper sense discern, 
Its halls of mystery ne'er explore. 

Ah ! not for such the unvalued gems ; 

The priceless- pearls of Truth they miss : 
Not theirs the starry diadems 

That light God's temple in the abyss ! 

Ah ! not for such to gaze on her 

That moves through all that empire pale; 
At every shrine doth minister, 

Yet never drops her vestal veil. 

t.orc 



100 MAY CAROLS. 

, "The letter kills." Make pure thy Will; 
So shalt thou pierce the Text's disguise: 
Till then, revere the veil that still 
Hides truth from truth-affronting eyes. 



MAY CAROLS. 101 



EXPECTATIO. 



XXII. 



A SWEET exliaustion seems to hold 
In spells of calm the shrouded eve : 

The gorse itself a beamless gold 

Puts forth: — yet nothing seems to grieve. 

The dewy chaplets hang on air; 

The willowy fields are silver-grey ; 
Sad odors wander here and there ; — 

And yet we feel that it is May. 

Eelaxed, and with a broken flow, 
From dripping bowers low carols swell 

In mellower, glassier tones, as though 
They mounted through a bubbling well. 

The crimson orchis scarce sustains 

Upon its drenched and drooping spire 

The burden of the warm soft rains ; 
The purple hills grow nigh and nigher. 



102 MAY CAROLS. 

Nature, suspending lovely toils, 
On expectations lovelier broods, 

Listening, with lifted hand, while coils 
The flooded rivulet through the woods. 

She sees, drawn out in vision clear, 
A w^orld with summer radiance drest, 

And all the glories of that year 

Which sleeps within her virgin breast. 



MAY CAROLS. 103 



XXIII. 

Still on the gracious work proceeds; — 
The good, great tidings preached anew 

Yearly to green enfranchised meads, 
And fire-topped woodlands flushed with dew 

Yon cavern's mouth we scarce can see ; 

Yon rock in gathering bloom lies meshed ; 
And all the wood-anatomy 

In thickening leaves is over-fleshed. 

That hermit oak which frowned so long 
UX3on the spring with barren spleen, 

Yields to the holy Siren's song. 
And bends above her goblet green. 

Young maples, late with gold embossed, — 

Lucidities of sun-pierced limes, 
No more surprise us — merged and lost 

Like prelude notes in deepening chimes. 

Disordered beauties and detached 
Demand no more a separate place : 

The abrupt, the startling, the unmatched, 
Submit to graduated grace; 



104 MAY CAROLS. 

Wliile ujDward from the ocean's marge 
The year ascends with statelier tread 

To where the sun his golden targe 
Finds, setting, on yon mountain's head. 



MAY CAROLS. 105 



TURRIIS EBURKEA. 



XXIV. 



This scheme of worlds, wliicli vast we call, 
Is only vast compared with man: 

Compared with God^ the One yet All, 
Its greatness dwindles to a span. 

A Lily with its isles of buds 

Asleep on some unmeasured sea: — 

O God, the starry multitudes. 
What are they more than this to Thee? 

Yet girt by Nature's petty pale 

Each tenant holds the place assigned 

To each in Being's awful scale : — 
The last of creatures leaves behind 

The abyss of nothingness : the first 
Into the abyss of Godhead peers; 

Waiting that vision which shall burst 
In glory on the eternal years. 



106 MAY CAROLS. 

Tower of our Hope ! through thee v/c climb 
Finite creation's topmost stair; 

Through tliee froiii Sion's height sublime 
Towards God we gaze through i)urer air. 

Infinite distance still divides 

Created from Creative Power ; 
But all which intercepts and hides 

Lies dwarfed by that surpassing Tower! 



MAY CAROLS. 107 



XXV. 

Who doubts that thou art finite ? Who 
Is ignorant that from Goclhead'.s height 

To what is loftiest here below 
The interval is infinite? 

O Mary ! with that smile thrice-blest 
Upon their petulance look down ; — 

Their dull negation, cold protest — 
Thy smile will melt away their frown ! 

Show them thy S©n ! That hour their heart 
Will beat and burn with love like thine; 

Grow large : and learn from thee that art 
Which communes best with things divine. 

Tlie man who grasps not what is best 

In creaturely existence, he 
Is narrowest in the brain ; and least 

Can grasp the thought of Deity. 



108 MAY CAROLS. 



XXVI. 

THiEY seek not ! or amiss they seek ; — 

The cold slight heart and captious brain: — 

To Love alone those instincts speak 
Whose challenge never yet was vain. 

True Gate of Heaven! As light through glass, 

So He who never left the sky 
To this low earth was pleased to pass 

Through thine unstained Virginity. 

Summed up in thee our hearts behold 

The glory of created things : — 
From His, thy Son's, corporeal mould 

Looks forth the eternal King of Kings ! 



MAY CAROLS. 109 



xxvir. 

A SUDDEN sun-burst in the woods, 
But late sad "Winter's palace dim! 

O'er quickening boughs and bursting buds 
Pacific glories shoot and swim. 

As when some heart, grief-darkened long, 
Conclusive joy by force invades — 

So swift the new-born splendors throng; 
Such lustre swallows up the shades. 

The sun we see not : but his fires 
From stem to stem obliquely smite, 

Till all the forest aisle respires 
The golden-tongued and myriad light. 

The caverns blacken as their brows 
"With floral fire are fringed; but all 

Yon sombre vault of meeting boughs 
Turns to a golden fleece its pall. 

As o'er it breeze-like music rolls. 

O Spring, thy limit-line is crossed I 
O Earth, some orb of singing Souls 

Brings down to thee thy Pentecost I 



110 MAY CAROLS. 



DOMIOTCA PENTE0OSTE9. 

XXYIII^ 

Clear as those silver trumps of old 

That woke Jiiclca's jubilee; 
Strong as the breeze of morning, rolled 

O'er answering woodlands from the sea, 

That matutinal anthem vast 

Which winds, like sunrise, round the globe, 
Following the sunrise, far and fast, 

And tramx^ling on his fiery robe. 

Once more the Pentecostal torch 
Lights on the courses of the year : 

The "upper chamber" of the Church 
Is thrilled once more with joy and fear. 

"Who lifts her brow from out the dust ? 

Who fixes on a world restored * 
A gaze like Eve's, but more august ? 

Who bends it heaven-ward on her Lord ? 



MAY CAROLS. Ill 

It is tlie Birthday of tlie Bride. 

The new begins ; the ancient ends : 
From all the gates of Heaven flung wide 

The promised Paraclete descends. 

He who o'ershadowed Mar^ once 

O'ershades Humanity to-day ; 
And bids her fruitful prove in sons 

Co-heritors with Christ for aye. 



112 MAY CAKOLS. 



DOMINICA PENTECOSTES. 

XXIX. 

The Form decreed of tree and flower, 

The shape susceptible of life, 
Without the infused vivific Power, 

Were but a slumber or a strife. 

He whom the plastic hand of God 

Himself created out of earth 
Remained a statue and a clod 

Till spirit infused to life gave birth. 

So, till that hour, the Church. In Christ 
Her awful structure, nerve and bone, 

Though built, and shaped, and organized. 
Existed but in skeleton; 

Till do^\Ti on that predestined frame, 
Comi)lete through all its sacred mould, 

The Pentecostal Spirit came, — 
The self-same Spirit who of old 



MAY CAEOLS. 113 

Creative o'er the waters moved. 

Tliencefortli tlie Church, made One and Whole, 
Arose in Him, and lived, and loved — 

His Temple she ; and He her Soul. 



S 



114 MAY CAIIOLS. 



TUTIRIS DAVIDICA. 



Tns to\yerc(l City loves thee well, 

Strong Tower of DavicVs House ! In thee 

Sho hails the unvanquished ciradel 
That frowns o'er Error's subject sea. 

With magic might that Tower repels 
A host that breaks where foe is none, — 

No foe but statued .Saints in cells 
High-ranged, and smiling in the sun. 

There stands Augustin ; Leo there ; 

And Bernard, with a maiden face 
Like John's; and, strong at once and fair. 

That Spirit-Pythian, Athanase. 

Upon thy star-surrounded height 

God's angel kcepeth watch and ward; 
And sunrise flashes thence ere night 
^nath left dark street and dewy sward. 



MAY CAROLS. 115 



' TU SOLA INTEREMISTI OMNES H^RESES.' 

XXXI. 

What tenderest liand uprears on high 
The standard of Incarnate God ? ^ 

Successive portents that deny 
Her Son, who tramples ? She who trod 

On Satan erst w^ith starlike scorn ! 

Ah ! never Al]3 looked dow^n through mist 
As she, that whiter star of morn, 

Through every cloud that darkens Christ ! 

Roll back the centuries : — who were those 
That, age by age, their Lord denied? 

Their seats they set with Mary's foes : — 
They mocked the Mother as the Bride. 

Of such was Arius ; and of such 
* He whom the Ephesian Sentence felled. 

tHer Title triumphed. At the touch 
Of Truth the insurgent rout w^as quelled. 

* Nestorius. t Dei-para. 



116 MAY CAKOLS. 

Back, back the hosts of Hell were driven 
As forth that sevenfold thunder rolled: — 

And in the Church's mystic Heaven 
There was great silence as of old. 



MAY CAEOLS. 



PART III. 



MAY CAROLS. 119 



PART III. 



In vain thine altars do they heap 

With blooms of violated May 
Who fail the words of Christ to keep ; 

Thy Son who love not, nor obey. 

Their songs are as a serpent's hiss ; 

Their praise a poniard's poisoned edge ; 
Their offering taints, like Judas' kiss, . 

Thy shrine; their vows are sacrilege. 

Sadly from such thy countenance turns : 
Thou canst not stretch thy Babe to such 

(Albeit for all thy pity yearns) 
As greet Him with a leper's touch. 

Who lovetli thee must love thy Son. 

Yf eak Love grows strong thy smile beneath : 
But nothing comes from nothing; none 

Can reap Love's harvest out of Death. 



120 MAY CABOL8. 



BABYLON. 



II. 



The watchman watched along the walls : 
And lo ! an hour or more ere light 

Loud rang his trumpet. From their halls 
The revellers rushed into the night. 

There hung a terror on the air; 

There moved a terror under ground ; — 
The hostile hosts, heard everywhere, 

Within, without — were nowhere found 

*' The Christians to the lions ! ♦ Ho ! "— 
Alas ! self-tortured crowds, let be ! 

Let go your wrath ; your fears let go : 
Ye gnaw the net, but cannot flee. 

Ye drank from out Orestes' cup; 

Orestes' Furies drave ye wild. 
Who conquers from on high ? Look up 1 

A Woman, holding forth a Child I 



MAY CAROLS. 121 



m. 

The golden rains are dashed against 
Those verdant walls of lime and beech 

With which our happy vale is fenced 
Against the north ; yet cannot reach 

The stems that lift yon leafy crest 
High up above their dripping screen: 

The chestnut fans are downward pressed 
On banks of bluebell hid in green. 

White vapors float along the glen, 
Or rise from every sunny brake ; — 

A pause amid the gusts — again 
The warm shower sings across the lake. 

Sing on, all-cordial showers, and bathe . 

The deepest root of loftiest pine I 
The cowslip dimmed, the "primrose rathe'' 

Refresh; and drench in nectarous wine 

Yon fruit-tree copse, all blossomed o'er 
With forest-foam and crimson snow — 

Behold 1 above it bursts once more 
The world-embracing, heavenly bow! 



132 MAY C A 11 O L 8 . 



SEDES SAPIEKTLE. 



IV. 



O THAT the wordy war might cease ! 

Self-sentenced Babel's strife of tongues I 
Loud rings the arena. Athletes, peace ! 

Isov drown the vv^ild-dove's Song of Songs. 

Alas, the wanderers feel their loss : 

With tears they seek— ah, seldom found — 

That peace wliose volume is the Cross; 
That peace which leaves not holy ground. 

Mary, who loves true peace loves thee ! 

A happy child, not taught of Scribes, 
He stands beside the Church's knee; 

From her the lore of Christ imbibes. 

Hourly he drinks it from her face: 
For there his eyes, he knows not how, 

The face of Him she loves can trace. 

And, crowned with thorn?, the sovereign brow. 



MAY CAROLS. ^ 12B 

" Beliold ! all colors blend in wliite ! 

Beliold ! all Truths liave root in Love V 
So sings, half lost in light of light, 

Her Song of Songs the mystic Dove. 



134 MAY CAKOLS. 



SEDES SAPIENTLE. 

V. 

"Wisdom hatli built herself a House, 
And liewn her out her pillars seven." * 

Her wine is mixed. Her guests are these 
Who share the harvest-home of heaven. 

Who guards the gates ? The flaming sword 
Of Penance. Every way it turns: 

But healing from on high is poured 
On each that fire seraphic burns. 

The fruits upon her table piled 
Are gathered from the Tree of Life. 

Around are ranged the undefiled, 

And those that conquered in the strife. 

Who tends the quests ? Who smiles away 
Sad memories ? bids misgiving cease ? 

A crowned one countenanced like the day- 
The Mother of the Prince of Peace. 

* Proverbs ix. 1. 



MAY CAROLS. 125 



VI. 

Here, in tliis paradise of light. 
Superfluous were botli tree and grass: 

Enough to watch the sunbeams smite 
Yon white flower sole in the morass. 

From his cold nest the skylark springs; 

Sings, pauses, sings ; shoots up anew ; 
Attains his topmost height, and sings 

Quiescent in his vault of blue. 

With eyes half-closed I watch that lake 
Flashed from whose jolane the sun-sparks fly, 

Like souls new-born that shoot and break 
From thy deep sea, Eternity! 

Kipplings of sunlight from the wave 
Ascend the white rock, high and higher; 

Soft gurglings fill the satiate cave; 
Soft airs amid the reeds expire. 

All round the lone and luminous meer 
The dark world stretches, far and free: 

That skylark's song alone I hear; 
That flashing wave alone I see. 



120 MAY CAKOLS. 

O myriad Eartli ! Where'er tliy Word 
Makes way indeed into the soul, 

An answering echo there is stirred : — 
Of thee the part is as the whole. 



MAY CAKOLS. 127 



TEST. B. V. M. DE MOl^TE CARMELO. 

VII. 

Carmel, with Alp and Apennine, 
Low whispers in the wind that blows 

Beneath the Eastern stars, ere shine 
The lights of morning on their snows. 

Of thee, Elias, Carmel speaks. 
And that white cloud, so small at firs! 

Thou saw'st approach the mountain peaki. 
To quench a dying nation's thirst. 

On Carmel, like a sheathed sword, 
Thy monks abode till Jesus came;^ 

On Carmel then they served their Lord - 
Then Carmel rang with Mary's name. • 

Blow over all the garden ; blow 
O'er all the garden of the West, 

Balm-breathing Orient ! Whisper low 
The secret of thy spicy nest. 



128 MAY CAROLS. 

" Who from tlie Desert upward moves 
Like cloud of incense onward borne ? 

Who, moving, rests on Him she loves? 
Who mounts from regions of the Morn ? 

" Behold ! The apple-tree beneath — 
There where of old thy Mother fell — 

I raised thee up. More strong than Death 
Is Love; — more strong than Death or Hell."* 

* Cant. viii. 5. 



MAY CAROLS. 129 



VIII. 

Come from tlie midniglit mountain tojDs, 
The momitains where the panthers play : 

Descend ; the veil of darkness drops ; 
Come fair and fairer than the day! 

Our hearts are .wounded with thine eyes : 
They character in words of light 

Thereon the mystery of the skies : 
The "Name o'er every name" they write. 

Come from ihj Lebanonian peaks 

Whose sacerdotal cedars nod 
Above the world, when morning breaks — 

The Mountain of the House of God. 

The land thou lov'st — O well is she! 

The ploughers on her back may plough ; 
But in her vales upgrows the Tree 

Of Life, and binds the bleeding brow. 



130 MAY CAEOLS. 



ADYOCATA NOSTRA. 

IX. 

I SAW, in visions of the night, 

Creation like a sea outsi^read, 
With surf of stars and storm of light 

And movements manifold and dread, 

The^. lo, within a Unman Hand 
A Sceptre moved that storm above : 

Thereon, as on the golden wand 

Of kings new-crowned, there sat a Dove. 

Beneath her gracious weight inclined 

That Sce]3tre drooped. Tlie waves had rest 

And Scej^tre, Hand, and Dove were shrined 
Within a glassy ocean's breast. 

His Will it was that placed her there ! 

H^ at whose word the tempests cease 
Upon that Sceptre planted fair 

That peace-bestowing type of Peace ! 



MAY CAROLS. 131 



THRONUS TRIKITATIS, 



Each several Saint the Church reveres, 
What is he but an altar whence 

Some separate Virtue ministers 
To God a separate frankincense? 

Each beyond each, not made of hands, 
They rise, a ladder angel-trod: 

Star-bright the last and loftiest stands — 
That altar is the Throne of God. 

Lost in the uncreated light 
A Form all Human rests thereon: 

His shade from that surpassing height 
Beyond creation's verge is thrown. 

Him " Lord of lords, and King of kings," 
The chorus of all worlds proclaim: — 

" He took from her," one angel sings 
At intervals, " His Human frame." 



132 MAY CAROLS. 



CULTUS SANCTORUM. 



XI. 



He seemed to linger with them yet: 

But late ascended to the skies, 
They saw — ah, how could they forget ? — 

The form they loved, the hands, the eyes. 

From anchored boat — in lane or field — 

He taught; He blessed, and brake the bread; 

The hungry filled ; the afflicted healed ; 
And wept, ere yet he raised, the dead. 

But when, like some supreme of hills. 
Whose feet shut out its summit's snow, 

That, hid no longer, heavenward swells 
As further from its base we go, 

Abroad His perfect Godhead shone. 

Each hour more plainly kenned on high, 

And clothed His Manhood with the sun, 
And, cleansing, hurt the adoring eye ; 



MAY CAROLS. 133 

Then fixed His Cliurcli a deepening gaze 
Upon His Saints. With Him they sate, 

And, burning in that Godhead's blaze. 
They seemed that Manhood to dilate. 

His were they : of His likeness each 
Had grace some fragment to present, 

And nearer brought to mortal reach 
Of Him some line or lineament. 



134 MAY CAROLS, 



FEST. S. S. TRINITATIS. 

XII. 

Fall back, all worlds, into the abyss, 
That man may contcmp^iate once more 

Til at which lie ever was Who is : — 
The Eternal Essence we adore. 

Angelic hierarchies! recede 

Beyond extinct creation's shade ! 
What were ye at the first ? Decreed :— 

Decreed, not fashioned; thought, not made! 

Like wind the untold Millenniums passed. 

Sole-throned He sat ; yet not alone : 
Godhead in Godhead still was glassed; — 

The Spirit was breathed from Sire and Son. 

Prime Virgin, separate and sealed ; 

Nor less of social love the root; 
Dimly in lowliest shapes revealed; 

Entire in every Attribute ; — 



MAY CAROLS. 105 

Thou liv'st in all things, and around; 

To Thee external is there nought; 
Thou of the boundless art the bound ; 

And still Creation is Thy Thought. 

In vain, O God, our wings we spread; 

So distant art Tliou — yet so nigh. 
Remains but this, when all is said, 

For Thee to live; in Thee to die. 



136 MAY CAROLS. 



xm. 

Wheke is the crocus now, that first, 
When earth was dark and heaven was grey, 

A prothalamion flash, up-burst? 
Ah, then we deemed not of the May ! 

The clear stream stagnates in its course; 

I^arcissus droops in pallid gloom; 
Far off the liills of golden gorse 

A dusk Saturnian face assume. 

The seeded dandelion dim 

Casts loose its air-globe on the breeze; 
Along the grass the swallows skim; 

The cattle couch among the trees. 

Yet ever lordlier loveliness 

Succeeds to that which slips our hold: 
The thorn assumes her snowy dress; 

Laburnum bowers their robes of gold. 

Down waves successive of the year 
We drop ; but drop once more to rise, 

With ampler view, as on we steer, 
Of lovelier lights and loftier skies. 



MAY CAROLS. 137 



"AD NIVES." 

XIV. 

Before tlie morn began to break 
The bright One bent above that pair 

Whose childless vows aspired to take 
The mother of their Lord for heir. 

'Twas August: even in midnight shade 
The roofs were hot, and hot the street: — 

*' Build me a fane," the vision said, 

" Where first your eyes the snow shall meet.'' * 

With snow the Esquiline was strewn 
At morn ! — ^Fair Legend ! who but thinks 

Of thee, when first the breezes blown 
From summer Alp to Alp he drinks ? 

He stands : he hears the torrents dash : 

Slowly the vapors break ; and lo ! 
Through chasms of endless azure flash 

The i)eaks of everlasting snow. 

* Santa Maria Maggiorc, on the Esquiline, at Rome. 



138 MAY CAIIO'LS. 

He stands ; lie listens ; on his ear 

Swells softly forth some virgin hymn : 

The white procession windeth near, 

With glimmering lights in sunshine dim. 

Mother of Purity and Peace ! 

They sing the Savior's name and thine :- 
Clothe them for ever with the fleece 

Unspotted of thy Lamb Divine 1 



MAY CAROLS. 139 



FEST. PURITATIS. 

XV. 

Far down the bird may sing of love ; 

The honey-bearing blossom blow : 
But hail, ye hills that rise above 

The limit of perpetual snow ! 

O Alpine Gity, with thy walls 
Of rock eterne and spires of ice, 

Where torrent still to torrent calls, 
And precipice to i^recipice; — 

How like that holier City thou, 

The heavenly Salem's earthly porch. 

Which rears among the stars her brow, 
And plants firm feet on earth — the Church 1 

"Decaying, ne'er to be decayed," 

Her woods, like thine, renev/ their youth: 
Her streams, in rocky arms embaye,d, 
Are clear as virtue, stronoj as truth. 



140 ^ MAY CAROLS. 

At times the lake may burst its dam ; 

Black pine and rock the valley strew; 
But o'er the ruin soon the lamb 

Its flowery pasture crops anew. 

She, too, in regions near the sky 
Up-piles her cloistered snows, and thence 

Diff'uses gales of purity 

O'er fields of consecrated sense. 

On those still heights a love-light glows 
The plains from them alone receive; — 

Not all the Lily ! There thy Rose, 
O Mary, triumphs, morn and eve I 



MAY CAROLS. 141 



XVI. 

Cloud-piercing Mountains ! Chance and Change 
More high than you their thrones aclvancc. 

Self-vanquished Nature's rockiest range 
Gives way before them like the trance 

Of one that wakes. From morn to eve 
Through fissured clefts her mists make way; 

At Night's cold touch they freeze, and cleave 
Her crags ; and, with a Titan's sway, 

Flake off and peel the rotting rocks, 

And heap the glacier tide below 
With isles of sand and floating blocks, 

As leaves on streams when tempests blow. 

Lo, thus the great decree all-just, 

O Earth, thy mountains hear; and learn 

From fire and frost its import — "Dust 
Thou art; and shalt to dust return." 

He only zs Who ever was; 

The All-measuring Mind ; the Will Supreme. 
Eocks, mountains, worlds, like bubbles pass : 

God is ; the things not God but seem. 



142 MAY C A n O L B , 



FOEDERIS ARCA. 



XYII. 



From end to end, O God, Thy Will 
Witli swift yet ordered might doth reach : 

Thy purposes their scope fulfil 
In sequence, resting each on each. 

In Thee is nothing sudden ; nought 
From harmony and law that swerves: 

The orbits of Thine act and thought 
In soft succession "wind their curves. 

O then with what a gradual care 
Must thou have shaped that sacred shrine, 

That Ark of grace, ordained to bear 
The burthen of the Babe divine ! 

How many a gift within her breast 
Lay stored, for Him a couch to strew! 

How many a virtue lined His nest ! 
How many a grace beside Him grew I 



MAY CAKOLS. 143 

Of love on love what sweet excess ! 

IIow deep a faith! a hoj)e how high! — 
Mary ! on earth of thee we guess ; 

But we shall see thee when we diel 



144 MAY CAROLS. 



DOMUS AUREA. 



XVIII. 



She mused upon the Saints of old ; 

Tlicir toils, their pains, she longed to share: 
Of Him she mused, the Child foretold ; 

To Ilim her hands she stretched in prayer. 

No moment passed without its crown ; 

xVnd each new grace was used so well 
It drew some tenfold talent down, 

Some miracle on miracle. 

O golden House ! O boundless store 
Of wealth by heavenly commerce won I 

When (jrod Himself could give no more, 
He gave thee all; He gave His Sonl 

Blessed the Mother of her Lord ! 

And yet for this more blessed still, 
Because she heard and kept His Word — 

HJo^h servant of His Soverei^xn Will I 



MAY CAKOLS. 145 



RESPEXIT HUMILITATEM. 

XIX. 

Not all tliy purity, although 

The whitest moon that ever lit 
The peaks of Lebanonian snow 

Shone dusk and dim compared with it; — 

Not that great love of thine, whose beams 
Transcended in their virtuous heat 

Those suns which melt the ice-bound streams, 
And make earth's pulses newly beat : — 

It was not these that from the sky 
Drew down to thee the Eternal Word: 

He looked on thy humility; 
He knew thee, " Handmaid of thy Lord." 

Let no one claim -jv^ith thee a part; 

Let no one, Maiy, name thy name, 
While, aping God, upon his heart 

Pride sits, a demon robed in flame. 
10 



146 MAY CAB.OLB. 

Proud Vices, die! Where Sin has place 
Be Sin's familiar self-disgust. 

Proud Virtues, doubly die ; that Grace 
At last may burgeon from your dust. 



HAY CAROLS. 147 



KESPEXIT HUMILITATEir. 



XX, 



Supreme among the things create 

Omnipotence revealed below, 
More swift than thought, more strong than fate^ 

Such, such. Humility, art thou I 

All strength beside is weakness. Might 

Belongs to God : and they alone. 
Self-emptied souls and seeming-slight. 

Are filled with God and share his throne. 

O Mary ! strong wert thou and meek ; 

Thy meekness gave thee strength divine : 
Thyself in nothing didst thou seek j 

Therefore thy Maker made Him thine. 

Through Pride our parents disobeyed; 

Eebellious Sense avenged the crime: 
The soul, the body's captive made, 

Became the branded thrall of time. 



148 MAY CAROLS. 

With barrenness the earth was cursed ; 

Inviolate she brought forth no more 
Her fruits, nor freely as at first: — 

Thou cam'st, her Eden to restore ! 

Low breathes the wind upon the string ; 

The harp, responsive, sounds in turn: 
Thus o'er thy Soul the Spirit's wing 

Creatire passed ;. and Christ was born. 



MAY CAROLS. 149 



" SINE LABE OmaiNALI CONCEPT A." 

XXI. 

Met in a point "^ the circles twain 
Of temporal and eternal tilings 

Embrace, close linked. Redemption's chain 
Drops thence to earth its myriad rings. 

In either circle, from of old, 

That point of meeting stood decreed ; — 
Twin mysteries cast in one deep mould, 

"The Woman," and "the Woman's seed." 

Mary, long ages ere thy birth 
Resplendent with Salvation's Sign, 

In thee a stainless hand the earth 
Put forth, to meet the Hand Divine! 

First trophy of all-conquering Grace, 
First victory of that Blood all pure, 

Of man's once fair but fallen race 
Thou stood'st, the monument secure. 

* The Inca rnation. 



150 MAY CAROLS. 

The Word made Flesh ! the Way ! the Door 1 
The link that dust with Godhead blends ! 

Through Him the worlds their God adore:— 
Through thee that God to man descends. 



MAY CAROLS. l51 



" SINE LABE ORiaiNALI CONCEPTA." 

XXII. 

A SOUL-LIKE sound, subdued yet strong, 
A whispered music, mystery-rife, 

A sound like Eden airs among 

The branches of the Tree of Life — 

At first no more than this ; at last 
The voice of every land and clime, 

It swept o'er Earth, a clarion blast : 

Earth heard, and shook with joy sublime. 

Mary ! thy triumph was her own. 

In thee she saw her prhne restored: 
She saw ascend a spotless Throne 

For Him, her Saviour, and her Lord. 

The Church had spoken. She that dwells 

Sun-clad with beatific light, 
From Truth's unvanquished citadels, 

From Sion's Apostolic height, 



152 MAY CAROLS. 

Had stretched her sceptred hands, and pressed 

The seal of Faith, defined and known, 
Upon that Truth till then confessed 
By Love's instinctive sense alone. 



MAY CAROLS. 153 



XXIII. 

Brow-bound with myrtle and with gold, 
Spring, sacred now from blasts and blights, 

Lifts in a firm, untrembling hold 
Her chalice of fulfilled delights. 

Confirmed around her queenly lip 
The smile late wavering, on she moves ; 

And seems through deepening tides to step 
Of steadier joys and larger loves. 

The stony Ash itself relents, 

Into the blue embrace of May 
Sinking, like old impenitents 

Heart-touched at last; and, far away, 

The long wave yearns along the coast 
With sob suppressed, like that which thrills 

(While o'er the altar mounts the Host) 
Some chapel on the Irish hills. 



154 MAY CAROLS. 



CORPUS CHRISTL 

^ XXIV. 

Rejoice, O Mary ! and be glady 
Thou Churcli triumphant here below 1 

He Cometh, in meekest emblems clad; 
Himself he comleth to bestow ! 

That body which thou gav'st, O Earth, 
He giveth back — that Flesh, that Blood; 

Born of the Altar's mystic bii'th ; 
At once thy Worship and thy Food. 

He who of old on Calvary bled 

On all thine altars lies to-day, 
A bloodless Sacrifice, but dread; 

The Lamb in heaven adored for aye. 

His Godhead on the Cross He veiled ; 

His Manhood here He veileth too : 
But Faith has eagle eyes unsealed; 

And Love to Him she loves is true. 



MAY CAROLS. 155 

"I will not leave you orphans. Lo ! 

While lasts the world with you am I.^' 
Saviour ! we see Thee not ; but know, 

With burning hearts, that Thou art nigh ! 

He comes ! Blue Heaven, thine incense breathe 

O'er all the consecrated sod ; 
And thou, O Earth, with flowers enwreathe 

The steps of thine advancing God! 



156 MAY C A HOLS, 



OOIIPTJS CHRrSTi; 

XXV. 

What mtisic «w6lls on every galfe ? 

What heavenly Herald rideth past? 
Vale sings to vale, " He comes ; all hail P' 

Sea sighs to sea, " He comes at last*" 

The Earth bursts forth in choral song; 
Aloft her " Lauda Sion " soars; 

m 

Her myrtle boughs at once are flung 
Before a thousand Minster doors. 

Far on the white processions wind 

Through wood and plain and street and court: 
The kings and prelates pace behind 

The King of kings in seemly sort. 

The incense floats on Grecian air ; 

Old Carmel echoes back the chant; 
In every breeze the torches flare 

That curls the waves of the Levant. 



MAY CAROLS. 157 

On Ramah's plain — in Bethlehem's bound — • 

Is heard to-day a gladsome voice: 
"Eejoice,'^ it cries, "the lost is found l^ 

With Mary's joy, O Earth, rejoice T' 



168 MAY CAROLS. 



XXVI. 



Pleasant the swarm about the bongh ; 

The meadow-whisper round the woods; 
And for their coolness pleasant now 

The murmur of the falling floods. 

Pleasant beneath the thorn to lie, 
And let a summer fancy loose ; 

To hear the cuckoo's double cry; 
To make the noontide sloth's excuse. 

Panting, but pleased, the cattle stand 
Knee-deep in water-weed and sedge, 

And scarcely crop the greener band 
Of osiers round the river's edge. 

But hark ! Far off the south wind sweeps 
The golden-foliaged groves among. 

Renewed or lulled, with rests and leaps — 
Ah ! how it makes the spirit long 

To drop its earthly weight, and drift 
Like yon white cloud, on pinions free, 

Beyond that mountain's purple rift, 
And o'er that scintillating sea! 



MAY CAROLS. 159 



XXVII.' 

Sing on, wide winds, your antliems vast ! 

The ear is richer than the eye : 
Upon the eye no shape can cast 

Such impress of Infinity. 

And thou, my soul, thy wings of might 
Put forth: — thou, too, one day shalt soar, 

And, onward borne in heavenward flight, 
The starry universe explore ; 

Breasting that breeze which waves the bowera 
Of Heaven's bright forest never mute, 

Whereof perchance this earth of ours 
Is but the feeblest forest-fruit. 

"The Spirit bloweth where He wills" — 

O Effluence of that Life Divine 
Which wakes the Umverse, and stills. 

In Thy strong refluence make us Thine ! 



IGO MAY CAROLS. 



CCELI ENARPvANT. 



XXTIII. 



Sole Maker of the "Worlds ! They lay 

A barren blank, a void, a nought, 
Beyond the ken of solar ray 

Or reach of archangelic thought. 

Thou spak'st; and they were made ! Forth sprang 

From every region of the abyss. 
Whose deeps, firc-clov'n, with anthems rang, 

The spheres new-born and numberless. 

Thou spak'st: — upon the winds were found 
The astonished Eagles. Awed and hushed 

Subsiding seas revered their bound ; 
And the strong forests upward rushed. 

Before the Vision angels fell. 
As though the face of God they saw ; 

And all the panting miracle 
Found rest within the arms of Law. 



MAY CAROLS. 161 

Perfect, O God, Thy primal ]3lan— ^ 
That scheme frost-bound by Adam's sin: 

Create, within the heart of Man, 
Worlds meet for Thee; and dwell therein. 

From Thy bright realm of Sense and Nature, 
Which flowers enwreathe and stars begem, 

Shai)e Thou Thy Church; the crowned Creature; 
The Bride; the New Jerusalem! 



11 



163 MAY CAROLS. 



CARO FACTUS EST. 



When from beneath the Almighty Hand 
The suns and systems rushed abroad, 

Like coursers which have burst their band, 
Or torrents when the ice is thawed; 

When round in luminous orbits flung 
The great stars gloried in their might; 

Still, still, a bridgeless gulf there hung 
'Twixt Finite things and Infinite. 

That crown of light creation wore 
Was edged with vast unmeasured black ; 

And all of natural good she bore 
Confessed her supernatural lack. 

For what is Nature at the best ? 

An arch suspended in its spring; 
An altar-step without a priest; 

A throne whereon there sits no king. 



MAY CAROLS. 163 

As one stone-blind that fronts the mom, 
The world before her Maker stood, 

Uplifting suppliant hands forlorn — 
God's creature, yet how far from God ! 

He came. That world His priestly robe; 

The Kingly Pontiff raised on high 
The worship of the starry globe : — 

The gulf was bridged, and God was nigh. 



1G4 MAY CAROLS. 



XXX. 

A WOMAN "clotlied with the sun,"* 
Yet fleeing from the Dragon's rage I— 

The strife in Eden-bowers begun 
Swells upward to the latest age. 

That woman's Son is throned on high; 

The angelic hosts before Him bend : 
The sceptre of His empery 

Subdues the worlds from end to end. 

Yet still the sword goes through her heart, 
For still on earth His Church survives. 

In her that woman holds a part : 
In her she suffers, wakes, and strives. 

Around her head the stars are set; 

A dying moon beneath her wanes: 
But he that letteth still must let: 

The Power accurst awhile remains. 

Break up, strong Earth, thy stony floors, 
And snatch to penal caverns dun 

That Dragon from the pit that wars 
Against the woman and her Son ! 

* Rev. xii. 1. 



MAY CAHOLS. 1G5 



XXXI. 

No ray of all their silken sheen 

The leaves first fledged have lost as yet: 
Unfaded, near the advancing queen 

Of flowers, abides the violet. 

The rose succeeds — her month is come: — 
The flower with sacred passion red : 

She sings the praise of martyrdom, 
And Him for whom His martyrs bled. 

The perfect work of May is done : 
Hard by a new perfection waits: — 

The twain, a sister and a nun, 
A moment parley at the grates. 

The whiter Spirit turns in peace 
To hide her in the cloistral shade : — 

'Tis time that you should also cease, 
Slight carols in her honor made. 



EPILOGUE. 



MAY CAKOLS. IGO 



EPILOGUE. 



Regent of Change, thou waning Moon, 
Whom they, the sons of night, adore, 

Her feet are on thee ! Late or soon 
Heap up upon the expectant shore 

The tides of Man's Intelligence ; 

Or backward to the blackening deep 
Remit them : Knowledge won from Sense 

But sleeps to wake, and wakes to sleep. 

Where are the hands that reared on high 
Heaven-threat'ning Babel ? where the might 

Of them, that giant progeny. 
The Deluge dealt with? Lost in night. 

The child who knows his creed doth stretch 
A sceptred hand o'er Space, and hold 

The end of all those threads that catch 
In wisdom's net the starry fold. 

The Sabbath comes : the work-days six 
Of Time go by ; meantime the key, 

O salutary crucifix. 

Of all the worlds, we clasp in thee. 



170 MAY CAROLS. 

Truth deeplier felt by none than him * 
Who at the Alban mountain's foot, 

Wandering ho more in shadows dim, 
Lay down, a lamb-like offering mute. 

His mighty lore found rest at last 
In Faith, and woke in God. Ah, Friend I 

When life which is not Life is past, 
Pray that like thine may be my end. 

Thy fair large front ; thine eyes' grave blue : 
Thine English ways so staid and plain ;— 

Through native rosemaries and rue 
Memory creeps back to thee again. 

Beside thy dying bed were writ 
Some snatches of these random rhymes ; 

Weak Song, how happy if with it 
Thy name should blend in after times. 

EoiiB, April 27, 1857. 

♦ Kobert leaak Wilberforce. 



HYMNS AND POEMS. 



HYMNS AND POEMS. 173 



HYMIT FROM ST. GERTRUDE, 

In which the Saints are called upon to praise God. 

O God, my God! a slender voice from earth: 
Were weak to sing Thee* May Thy fair, strong 

sons. 
Thronging through heaven, Thine Angels and Thy 

Saints, 
The Hierarchies of Thy predestinate, 
In triumph hymn Thee ; may their song he mine. 

Those Spirits Seven that stand before Thy throne, 
And they the fervid hosts Thou sendest forth 
Like light o'er all the earth to minister 
Thy gifts and graces to the Race Redeemed, 
Let them sing loud and let their song be mine. 

The Four-and-twenty Elders that adore Thee; 
The Patriarchs, and the Prophets, they that cast 
Their crowns for ever down before Thy throne ; 
The Living Creatures Four, shadowed with wings. 
That from Thy praises cease not day or night. 
Let them sing loud and let their song be mine. 



174 HYMNS AND POEMg. 

That worsliipfnl and Apostolic Band, 
High Puissances of Love, that with the might 
Of their strong arms in intercession raised 
Sustain (for such Thy Will) Thy sacred Church 
While the vain storm of ages round it roars, 
Let them sing loud and let their song be mine. 

The armies of Thy Martyrs, they whose robes 
Are purple ever with Thy Blood, not theirs, 
Which makes, through them, all Earth a Calvary, 
Let them sing loud and let their song be mine. 

The shining Senate of Thy Confessors, 
In blest translation from this world of sin 
Lifted by Thee, henceforth Thy peace to share. 
And reign with Thee in never-waning light, 
Let them sing loud and let their song be mme. 

Thy Virgin Choir serenely clothed upon 

With the snows of incorruption, they whose brows 

Flash far the splendors of Thy purity ; 

Who, up the hills of God ascending ever. 

Where'er He goeth follow still the Lamb, 

From their glad hearts resounding that new Song, 

"Jesus, Thou Spouse of Virgin souls, all hail!" 

Let them sing loud and let their song be mine. 



HYMNS AND POEMS. 175 

May Thine Elect, wliom none can know or number, 

Thy People from all Nations, give Thee praise, 

Thou art their God, and there is none beside : 

May all Thy marvellous Works in heaven and earth, 

The jubilee re-echo : may Thy Church, 

And she that World material. Sisters twain, 

Sustain the eternal Psalm antiphonal, 

Burn in one Joy, and send Thee back a gleam, 

Reflex of that high Glory Increate, 

Whereof both flood and torrent-fount art Thou. 



176 HYMNS AND POEMS. 



HYMN-. 

The Feast of St.- Peter's Cnair at Antioch. 



At Antioch first the Name of Christ 
Came down and clothed His Eace : 
Enthroned at Antioch Peter reared 

His earlier resting-place. 
O Eastern Church ! Imperial Schism 
Swept from thy forehead crown and chrism: 
Loose from the fold thy Caesars broke; 
Thy penance came — the Moslem yoke! 

II. 

O Eastern Church, so great of old, 

What art thou at this hour? 
God called thee ! why that backward gaze 

Servile to mortal Power ? 
Thou stand'st amid the salt sand-waste 
A queenly statue, fire-defaced; 
A Pillar wrecked of sentenced Pride, 
A dead Faith's Image petrified ! 



HYMNS AND POEMS. 177 

III. 

I]astward, heaveii'Warned, thB Empire ranged; 

Byzantium ruled, not Eome: 
Westward the Churcli; the Vatican 

Not Salem was her home. 
Like ships that each the other pass, 
Swift-borne through mist o'er seas of glass, 
Those Spirits of a converse lot 
Each, other crossed and answered not. 

IV. 

Of all those Patriarchal Thrones 

Whereon the Apostles sate 
But Eome survives, the hond and seal 

Of Christ's Episcopate : 
There Peter reigns, and by his side 
That great compeer* who with him died; 
One walked the Gentiles' utmost bound, 
One sate, the Church's jcentre crowned. 



The Alexandrian altar fell, 

Jerusalem, like thine, 
Poor Eeliquaries they of Faith 

This hour, no more the Shrine; 

* St. Paul. 



178 HYMNS AND POEMS. 

Chalcedon, Epliesus, and Nice, 
The Councils like the Arts of Greece, 
Their names are fair in sacred lore; 
The spirit of Life is theirs no more. 



VI. 



Thus in the dust of centuries sleep 

The glories once so bright ; 
Rome, Rome alone, whose vigil lasts 

Through all the wondering night, 
Still marks with awe and notes with care 
The spots where orbs that are not were : 
Her Ephemerides retain 
Their names and places, not in vain. 



VII. 

The Pilot of the Barque divine 

Still sees, as on he steers. 
Sad Antioch's ever-setting star 
O'erhang the seas of years ;. 
Sees rather where it shone of old 
A radiance posthumous and cold, 
A monitory gleam and grand, 
Imj)assive as- a dead man's hand. 



KTMNS AND POEMS. 179 

VIII. 

Dread tnonument ! 'Tis thine to lay 

That warning Hand and frore 
On breasts of panting kings and realms 

That kings for Gods adore: 
To freeze the Gentile Hope, to bind 
The loftier with the lowlier mind, 
And with the weight of all the past 
Confirm that greatness shaped to last. 



180 inrMNB AND POEMS. 



HYMN. 

The Peafet of St. Jolin the Baptist. 

Type of God's Predestinated, 
Ere thy birth regenerated, 

Thy Lord, Himself unborn, was thine ! 
Ere our sunlight yet had crowned thee 
The Sun that healeth sought and found thee; 

Thy Mother spake and hailed the sign ! 

Voice of God ! the rocks, they fed thee ; 
Thymy paths the desert spread thee; 

By the shoulders and the head 
Thou wert loftier than the human ; 
Among all the sons of woman 

None like thee for mien or tread. 

Hermit-chief and monk austerest I 
Nought thou lovest, nought thou fearest, 

Save that Lord and God most High: 
The viper generation trembled; 
In vain that King his fear dissembled ; 

Thy words went through him, and thine eye. 



HYMNS AND P0BM6. 181 

A cloistered Virgin in tliy rigor, 
A giant athlete in thy vigor, 

Not in vain didst thou, a child. 
At Mary's foot lie down and nestle. 
Breast to breast with Jesus wrestle 

In the garden or the wild. 

Say, what seek ye, crowds forth-fleeting 
As though to grace some merry meeting, 

A Reed with every wind that moves? 
This is not a Reed that shaketh, 
Bujb God's Tempest that down breaketh 

Towers of Pride and Idol groveg> 

" Repent, repent !" Around thee gathered 
Men in prime, and men time-withered: 

About thy steps the children, crept: 
Unbelief made dumb thy Sire: 
Faith bore thy words o'er earth likB fire: 

The sinner heard thy voice and. wept. 

Foretold Precursor, Standard-bearer I 
As from Michael's sword in terror 

At thy voice the demona fled : 
Once alone on earth or under, 
A peal like thine again shall thunder, 

The angelic -Trump . that wakes the dead. 



182 HYMNS AND POEMS. 

Thy power, wlieiice came it ? From tjiy meekness ! 
Like Moses mighty in tliy weakness, 

Thy strength was God, the dread "I am:" 
Thy life was Love : thy lips confessed it 
Then when thine eye on Jesus rested. 

And thou didst cry, " Behold the- Lamb !" 

Last of the prophets, last and greatest ! 
Baptist, the ancient Law that matest 

With God's new Law of Grace and Love; 
Pray thou that Christ's atoning merit 
May cleanse our deeds ; His promised Spirit 

Baptize our spirits from above. 



HYMNS AND POEMS. 183 



KraiN" OF PEAISE TO GOD. 

Fr'om St.' Gertrude. 

Height inaccessible of* Sovran Power; 

Unfathomed depth of Wisdom hid and sealed ; 

Limitless breadth of all-embracing Love ; 

None but thyself can yield Thee worthy praise : 

Thyself alone canst know Thyself. Our Hymns 

Are as a little breeze that dies. O then 

May Thine eternal Godhead yield Thee praise : 

Thy Majesty enthroned and measureless, 

May It upon the altar of Itself 

Offer the unceasing incense. May the expanse 

Of Thy far Wisdom round Creation's shores 

Murmur Thy praise. Thy Justice and Thy Might, 

And all Thine Attributes unknown or known, 

Like heavenly armies may they chaunt Thy name, 

They most Thy piercing sweetness, and the voice 

Wounding, , yet healing, of Thy tender Love ! 



184 HYMNS AND POEMS. 

May ail the Names that name Thee, may the might 
Of all Thy Titles radiant o'er the gates 
Of that Jerusalem, Thy regal seat, 
Which are as banners blazoning Thee to man ; 
May those mute types, revealed or latent yet 
I' the depths of thought, which like to keys unlock 
The secret chambers of Thy Mysteries, ' 
Bless Thee for ever, give Thee thanks for me, 
Exult in Thee, adore Thee, cliaunt the praise 
Of each of Thy compassions, in old time 
Vouchsafed or now or in the years to come, 
Vouchsafed to me Thy least, or him the greTatest, 
Whoe'er he be, of all Thy heavenly Hosts. 

May the adored Humanity- of Christ 
Praise Thee, my God, for me. May every Act 
And Suffering of His converse here on earth 
Yield Thee a separate incense. Be they thine 
His divine Virtue and the all- wondrous Grace 
That passed miraculous from Him. May His tears 
And those Five Fountains of His Blood all pure, 
Drown my transgressions; may His precious Death 
My lack supply and glorify Thy name. 

May that serenest Queen and crowned Creature 
That in the TuU assembly of Thy saints 
Through her humility is highest throned, 
And nearest to her Son, Mary thrice-blest, 



HYMNS AND POEMS. 185 

May she, O Thou Creator of all worlds, 
For me ex?tol Thee ; may the heavenly choirs, 
Ten thousand times ten thousand, blissful Souls, 
And singing Spirits, hymn Thee. Kot alone 
Standeth the great Priest in the light eterne: 
His own are with Him, what He doth they do ; 
And, as the Shadow with the Substance moves. 
They also lift their hands and chaunt Thy praise. 

May our most holy Mother in all lands 
The Universal Church exult in Thee, 
Praise Thee for me, and sing to Thee. May they 
Her Daughters Seven, the all-quickening Sacra- 
ments, 
Her dread yet gentle Rites with touch air-soft, 
Her reverend and decorous ceremonies, 
Her Penances, her Yigils, and her prayers, 
Her Psalms re-echoed far from peak or isle 
Or Minster city-girt, while reigns the sun 
At noon, or sink the stars beneath the sea ; 
May all her Sanctities and holy Woes 
Praise Thee, and all her Raptures, their reward. 
The still processions of her kingly Thoughts, 
The angel-like ascent of Hopes and Yows, 
Her sacred Longings, her divine Desires, 
And each low sigh breathed from this vale of 
tears. 



186 HYMNS AND POEMS. 

May all Thy gifts of Grace on me bestowed, 

Though I be dumb, confess thee. May that Love 

Which from Eternity its pitying eyes 

Eeposed on me, a spot amid the void, 

And forth from darkness called me ; may the hands 

Of that strong Providence which shaped my way 

Praise Thee. May all my being, all I have 

Or am, self-known, or self-unknown, to Thee 

Well known, my Maker, sing Thy laud. May all 

My Faculties of Body, Mind, and Soul, 

My nerves and veins, my sinews and my bones, 

Praise Thee ; they too, my Memory and my Will, 

My Heart with all its groanings, and my Life 

Warring to death on Sin which is Thy foe. 



HYMNS AND POEMS. 187 \ 



HYMK 

The Feast of St. John the Evangelist. 
I. 

His praise in all the Cliurcli is wide: 

He listened to the Master's Call : 
To-day his seat is set beside 

The seats of Peter and of Paul. 
His head upon the Saviour's breast 

Had leave to lie : and 'neath the Eood, 
When thunder-scattered were the rest, 

Beside the ]\Iother-Maid he stood* 

II. 

His name for ever shall endure: 

That Mother-Maid his dwelling shared, 
And to those eyes by hers made pure 

The heaven of heavens their mysteries bared : 
The Twelve dread Caesars slept in dust; 

Above their graves he looked, and saw 
The War of Ages, and the Just 

Judging the Tribes of Man with awe. 



188 HYMNS AND POEMS. 

III. 

He opened 'mid the Cliurcli of God 

His mouth with wisdom from on high: 
Of him there went a word abroad, 

The rumor he should never die : 
Beside that lake in Galilee 

Christ, holding forth the Keys of Power, 
Thus spake to Peter, " Follow Me ;" 

But Peter looked on John that hour. 

IV. 

Lily impearled and morning-kissed I 

Love-Star of dawn perpetual, John I 
Apostle and Evangelist, 

In whom Belief and Love were one : 
Yet awful 'mid thy sweetness; firm 

The chaff to winnow from the grain ; 
Heart bleeding with the wounded worm, 

Yet counting tribulation gain. 



Seraph of all the Apostles' Band I 
Love's unconsumed, aye-burning Tree 

That light'st far off our desert land, 
This day our Guide and Patron bel 



HYMNS AND POEMS. 189 

On realms that each the other tear,. 
On hearts worn out with bitterer strife, 

Send down from heaven — such strength hath 
prayer — 
That love which was thine earthly life. 



190 JEYMNS AND POEMS, 



HYMN. 

Il'raiislation of the "Stabat Mater Dolorosa." 

I. 

By the Cross of Expiation 

The Mother stood, and kept her station, 

Weeping for her Son and Lord: 
With the nails His Hands were riven; 
Through her heart the sword was driven, 

Simeon's dread, predicted sword. 

II. 

O that blessed one grief-laden, 
Blessed Mother, blessed Maided, 

Mother of the all-blessed One I 
O that silent, ceaseless inournii\g, 
O those dim eyes never turning 

From that wondrous, suffering Son I 

III. 
Who is he of nature human 
Tearless that could watch that Woman? 

Hear unmoved that Mother's moan ? 
Who, unchanged in shape and color, 
Who could mark that Mother's dolour, 

Weeping with her Son alone ? 



HYMKS AND POEMS. 191 

IV. 

For 'His people's sins tlie All-Holy 
There she saw, a victim lowly, 

Bleed in torments, bleed and die; 
Saw tlie Lord's Anointed taken; 
Baw lier Child in death forsaken ; 

Heard His last expiring cry. 

V. 

Fount of love and sacred sorrow ! 
Mother, may my spirit borrow 

Sadness from thy holy w^oe: 
May it love — on fire within me — : 
Christ, my God, till great love win me 

Grace to jolease Him here below. 



Those Five Wounds of Jesu smitten, 
Mother ! in my heart be written 

Deeply as in thine they be : 
Thou my Saviour's Cross who bearest, 
Thou thy Son's Rebuke w^lio sharest. 

Let me share them both with thee. 

.1 VII. 

In the Passion of my Maker 
Be my sinful soul partaker; 



192 HYMNS AND POEMS. 

Let me weep till death with thee: 
Unto me this boon be given, 
By thy side, like thee bereaven, 

To stand beneath th' atoning Tree. 

VIII. 

Virgin holiest, Virgin purest, 
Of that anguish thou endurest. 

Make me bear with thee my farl: 
Of His Passion bear the token 
In a sj^irit bowed and broken, 

Bear His Death within my heart. 



May His Wounds both wound and heal me ; 
His Blood enkindle, cleanse, anneal me ; 

Be His Cross my hope and stay; 
Virgin, when the mountains quiver 
From that flame which burns for ever, 

Shield me on the Judgment Day. 

X. 

Christ! when He that shaj^ed me calls me, 
When the advancing Death appals me, 

Through her prayer the storm make calm: 
When to dust my dust retumeth, 
Save a soul to Thee that ycarneth: 

Grant it then the crown and palm. 



HYMNS AND POEMS. 193 



HYMN ON THE DIVIKE IIUMAKITY OF 
CHRIST. 

From St. Gertrude. 

Jesus, Thou Son of God, true God, true Man ! 
May one voice more, a feeble voice from earth. 
Blend with the choirs that Mystery who sing 
Highest, that thrilling Influx unrevealed 
Of Thy Divinity, which, like a tide 
From ocean winding up an inland stream, 
Creeps on through Thy Humanity for aye ; 
Creeps on through that Humanity enthroned 
In heaven, transfigured 'mid the eternal light. 
High guerdon for the Wounds that yet it bears 
Deep-graved ; the "Wounds that wrought man's peace 
below. 

Jesus, Thou Son of God, true God, true Man ! 
A voice from earth would join the choirs that sing 
That breathless, ravishing, supreme delight. 
Springtide of bloom for aye renewed, wherein 
The sacred Eyes of Thy Humanity, 
That close not, in their venerable trance 
Feast on those pastures green and limitless 
Irradiate by the Eternal Three iu One. 
13 



194 HYMKS AKD POEMS. 

Jesus, Thou Son of God, true God, true Man ! 

A voice from earth would join the choirs that sing 

That quietude and solace high wherein 

The sacred Ears of Thy Humanity 

(Fruition evermore renewed) are held, 

'Not by the lute or viol, wind or cord, 

But by those dread interior Harhionies 

For ever whispering round the abyss of God, 

Prime Hymeneal and perpetual psalm — 

The concords of the Eternal Three in One. 

Jesus, Thou Son of God, true God, true Man! 

A voice from earth would join the choirs that sing 

The sweet refreshment of Thy heavenly Rest ; 

That clear, sabbatical, and mystic clime 

Whereby Thy deified Humanity, 

Its suffering past, is equably embraced. 

The embowering sunset of its endless peace, ^ 

And the vivific fragrance evermore 

Breathed from that underlying Eden vast, 

The Bosom of the Eternal Trinity. 

Jesus, Thou Son of God, true God, true Man ! 
Humanity with Godhead crowned, all hail ; 
In Thy sufficiencies impassible ; 
Yfith sx^iritual senses clothed, to earthly pain 
Superior, or the attempt of earthly joys ! 
In place of these one kingly bliss is Thine, 



HYMITS AKD POEMS. 195 

Simple, inviolate, indivisible, 
The inflowing of Divinity for aye 
Permeant througlx Thy Humanity as when 
All heaven distils itself through dewy woods. 
Hail, Son of God, and Mary's Child ! Through Thee 
Within her luminous Bridal Chamber still 
Humanity with God for ever holds 
Commerce transcendent. Hail, for ever hail, 
Christ, God and Man, that makest all things one ! 



196 HYMNS AND POEMS. 



MAUNDAY THURSDAY. 

(The Washing of the Feet.) 

Once more the Temple-Gates lie open wide: 

Onward, once more, 
Advance the Faithful, mounting like a tide 

That climbs the shore. 

Naked as Tombs the Altars stand to-day : 

The shrines are bare : 
Christ of His raiment was despoiled, and they 

His livery wear. 

To-day the mighty and th e proud have heard 

The " Mandate New :'' 
That which He did, their Master, and their Lord) 

This day they do. 

To-day the mitred foreheads, and the crowned, 

In meekness bend: 
New tasks to-day the sceptred hands have found : 

The Poor they tend. 



HYMNS AND POEMS. 197 

To-day tliose feet which tread in lowliest ways, 

And follow Christj 
Are by the secular lords of power and praise, 

Both washed and kissed. 

Hail ordinance sage of hoar antiquity, 

Which she retains, 
That Church who teaches man how meek should be 

The head that reigns. 



198 HYMITS AND POEMJ 



AN ANCIENT LEGEND AND ITS ANSWER. 

[" Through Alexandria there rushed of old a Woman with dis- 
orderedgarb that held high in one hand a Torch, and in the other 
bore a Jar of Water, and cried aloud, saying, ' With thia Torch 
I will burn up Heaven, and with this Jar of Water I will quench 
Heil, that henceforward God may be loved for His own sake 
alone.' "] . 

Tnou Christian Mocnad, with thy Torch and Jar, 
That wouldst burn Heaven to its remotest star 
And quench all Hell, that thus, beneath — above — 
God might be God alone, and LoveJ:>ut Love, 
Too proud for gifts ! dash down that Jar and Torch 
And learn a lowlier wisdom from the Church. 
Know this, that God is Heaven : with Ilim who 

dwell 
Find Love's Reward perforce : and theirs is Hell 
(Hate's dread self-prison) who pine in endless night 
From God exiled, or blinded by His light. 
Moenad! Thy Thyrsus is no Prophet Bod: 
Who cancels Heaven and Hell must cancel God. 



HYMNS AND POEMS. 109 



LEGBNDA AUREA. 

She lived in woods ; in lioly fear 
Had bade her Fatlier's Court farewell ; 

" Yet all," slie said, " for gold to rear 
A convent where I found a cell!" 

'Twas May-Day ! a Laburnum nigli 
With sudden blossoms strewed the mold ; 

(The same that tempted bards gone by 
To babble of their " sho^V^^ of gold.") 

^' Search thou beneath that glittering soil,'^ 
Hope, singing like a throstle, said: 

She dug and found a golden spoil 
Rich as an Indian river's bed. 

What placed it there but love and prayer ? 

Ere long, they say, her convent bell 
Through crimson morning's throbbing air 

Sent happy news o'er flood and fell! 



200 HYMNS AND POEMS. 



IMPENITENCE, 



Scarce marked my youth beside me streamed, 

And passed insensibly away: 
Upon tlie bank I slept, and seemed 

To rise a man new-born eacb day. 

Forgotten sins were mine no more ! 

I knew not that the slime and weed 
Down-washed on Life's remoter shore 

A pestilence at last would breed : 

That buried guilt brings darkly forth 
A wormy brood ; that unwept crimes, 

Though outcast like a spurious birth. 
Will haunt our doors in after times ! 

Round mine they sit from night to morn, 
Pale portents of a day gone by; 

And wail ^^ that ever we were born 
Who loathe to liva and cannot die.'' 



HYMNS AND POEMS. 201 



PE:tTA]SiCE. 



The pilgrim risen whilst all is night 

Who nears ere morn some sleeping town, 

Crossing the dark hill's barrier height 
What sees he, gazing dimly down? 

A blank, a shade ! the fruitful plain 

Is lonelier than a barren moor, 
Forlorner than a moonless main, 

More dolorous than a wreck-strewn shore ! 

The grace that basked by day, the peace 

That smiled in Order's sacred bound, 
- Halls, hedges, flocks, ancestral trees, 
In one funereal gloom are drowned. 

A wan light spreads the hills beyond ; 

A dreary wind goes wailing by; 
While, swollen with rains, the sullen pond 

Gleams dully as a dead man's eye. 



202 HYMNS AND POEMS. 

But lo* tlie sun ! with golden rod 
The Planet self-eclipsed he greets 1 

Earth brightens like a wakening God ; 
Once more her deep heart bounds and beats. 

So leaps in life the unburthened breast 
"When She of Penitents the Queen 

Holds out the absolving Keys of Christ, 
Her hand puts forth, and says, " Be clean." 



HYMNS AND POEMS, 203 



THE ANGEL OF THE WAY. 

I TOILED along the public path ; 

Loud rang the booths with knave and clown : 
Now laughter peals, now cries of wrath, 

Assailed the suburb from the town. 

The Circe of the kennel brimmed 

Her cup for him that passed. Hard by 

Sabbathless labor, dust-begrimmed 
Alternated the curse and sigh. 

" Alas." I wept, " no God is here ! 

The World, the Flesh, rule here confest:" 
I heard a voice : an Angel near 

On sailed; an altar touched his breast. 

He placed it by me, and I knelt ; 

Clamor and shout and dust were gone : 
I prayed, and in my prayer I felt 

The peace of God, and heard, " walk on." 



204 HYMNS AND POEMS. 



QUESTIONINGS. 

Through all tlie house there stirs no sound 
Save this low flickering of my fire; 

In peaceful chambers all around 
The men I love unheard respire. 

Beside each bed a Phantom stands ; 

He waits his time; his name is Death. 
On every breast his icy hands 

He lays, and sucks each ebbing breath. 

Unmoved, yet changing, there they lie. 
Drawn downward in a fatal barque 

Unconscious t'wards Eternity 

Through caves successive of the dark. 

O Night, O Dark, O dreadful nurse, 
O thoughts we shun, yet cannot scorn; 

Each night our death do we rehearse; 
Yet meet in smiles each morrow morn. 



HYMNS AND POEMS. 205 



TRIAL. 

(St. Francis de Sales.) 

As wlien for weeks the tempest blinds 
Some sea-girt mountain, night and day, 

So storms of trial, clouds and winds,. 
Besieged his soul, till not a ray 

Could reach him of that glory streamed 
From God upon the new-born world: 

An erring star and lost he seemed 

Through endless darkness onward hurled. 

At last, his large heart breaking, down 
He knelt his latest prayer to make, 

(True heart that, shrivelling in the frown 
Of God, that God would not forsake,) 

" If I must lose Thee there beneath. 
Lord, let me love Thee till I die !" 

It sank — the black cloud's latest wreath ; 
And God was his eternally ! 



206 nYMNS AND POEMS, 



THE KINDLY TRANSIENCE. 

"Like flowers," they tell us, "Life must fade!" 
All briglit-faced Friend ! if flowers must die 

Immortal sweets of sucli arc- made : 
Thus Time bequeaths Eternity. 

"Life is a fleeting shade!" What then? 

The Substance doth the Shadow cast : 
Essential Life, it recks not when, 

Shall crown this seeming Life at last. 

Thus, while autumnal eddies caught 
Dead leaves, and whirled them in the sun, 

Half-Truths, deciduous sjDoils of Thought, 
Their clothing from on high put on: 

And better far it seemed to plight 
To earth a transient troth and trust 

Than with corruption wed, and blight 
The Spirit^s hope with deathless dust. 



HYMISrS AKD POEMS. 207 



FESTUM MATERNITATIS, 

To lowliesfc creatures God permits 
Maternal Love, an instinct blind 

Y^eakness witli help that softly knits, 
Benignant Nature's '' Law of Kind." 

The human mother's happier nest, 

The bird's with wing and questing bill, 

Are both but Nature's ; and the best 
That earth can yield is earthly still. 

But Mary ! heavenly is her Child, 
And heavenly her Maternal Love: 

To her it comes, the undefiled, 
Comes, like her Infant, from above. 

From Him, the o'ershadowing Spirit, Him 
Alone descends that Love she proves: 

No mortal joy her eye makes dim : 
It is the God-Man that she loves. 



208 HYMNS AND POEMS. 

It is tlie God-Man tliat slie loves; 

Her Motherhood's sublhnest part 
Is this, with Him the world that moves 

To share that prime Parental Heart 1 



HYMNS AND P O E M.S . 209 



MATER CHRISTI. 

"Behold thy Motlier!". From the Cross 
He gave her — not to one alone: 

We are His Brethren ; unto us 
He gave a mother as to John. 

Behold the greatest gift of Christ, 
Save that wherein Himself He gives, 

The wonder-working Eucharist, 
Sole life of each that truly lives. 

Mysterious Bread, not joined and knit 
With him that eats, like mortal food, 

But, fire-like, joining him with it. 

And blending with the Church of God. 

Mary ! from thee the Saviour took 

That Flesh He gives ! The mercies twain, 

Like streams of a divided brook, 

But separate to meet again. 
14 



310 HYMNS AND TOEMJ 



m HORA MORTIS. 

It was tlie dread last Eucharist: 

The hopes and fears of earth were gone ; 

The latest, Imgermg friend dismissed ; 
The bed was ashes strewed o'er stone. 

It was the dear last Eucharist : 
The old man lay in silent prayer : 

His heart was now a Shrine, and Christ 
Was with His Mother whispering there. 

He heard them, heard within that veil 
Voices that Angels may not hear, 

Not he that said to Mary, ^'Hail,'' • 
Not he that watched the Sepulchre: 

Voices that met with touch like light ; 

Murmurs that mixed, as when their breath 
Two pine trees, side by side, unite : 

Of Love one whispered ; one of Death. 



HYMNS AND POEMS. 211 



THE CAYIL. 

"So great! Then wherefore whilst on earth 
So still, so silent, so unknown ? 

What prophet sang her death or birth? 
Before her steps what trump was blov/n ?" 

Ah, barren brain heaven-taught in vain ! 

So blind ! in texts so parrot-learned ! 
Against the grain plain shows not plain : 

Truth, grasped by sense, is undiscerned. 

Her Son was God, yet seemed but Man: 
She, Chief of Creatures, seemed the least. 

Thus likest Him who first began, 
So long concealed, at Cana's feast 

His Godlike Works, yet oft forbade 
To noise those Godlike Works abroad — 

Inferior greatness is displayed ; 
The loftier hides in \\^\t with God. 



213 HYMNS AND POEMS. 



THE VEIL. 

For thirty years with her He lurked, 

As secret as the unrisen sun : 
In three short years His Work He worked : 

That work we know. The victory won 

Once more the veil descends, and shrouds 
That trance of Love, the Forty Days : 

Like mountains lost in luminous clouds 
Their marvels cheat our yearning gaze. 

The Saints who rose when Jesus died, 
Lazarus, twice cast from nature's womb, 

Hidden their after days abide 
As Enoch's life or Moses' tomb. 

The "Work, the Work — no more — is told : 
The lore man needs not shuns his sight : 

Thy Work was this, to clothe in mould 
Of Adam's race the Infinite. 



HYMNS AND POEMS. 213 

Thy Motlierhood tMne endless Act, 
In this all lesser praise is drowned: 

To this to add were to detract: 

Sole-throned it bideth, and self-crowned. 



214 HYMNS AND POEMS. 



THE LETTER AND THE SPHIIT. 

How oft that Sadducean fool 

That imped with feathers from the jay 
As hard a heart, a brain as dull 

As e'er were bubble-blown from clay, 

How oft his half-shut eye had roved 
From sacred page to page, and read 

Those words that unaffirming proved 
The Resurrection from the Dead!* 

Texts plainer were there : "I shall go 
To him ; he cannot come to me " — 

" Though worms consume this Body, lo 1 
I in my flesh my God shall see." 

Such texts the Saviour challenged not: 
He willed to prove that at the core 

Of well-known words to reverent Thought 
There lurked a mine of unknown lore. 

* " The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." '^ 



HYMNS AND POEMS. '21^ 

"What texts avouch lier greatness?" Two, 
For those the Letter's rind who pierce; 

The Ancient Eecord and the New : 
In Christ they meet; and Christ is hers. 



216 HYMNS AND POEMS. 



'' m ELECTIS MEIS MITTE RADICES." 

EouGH is tlie shock of adverse seas: 
Sudden the up-bursting of a sect : 

Thou, like a Vine, by soft degrees 
Didst root thyself in God's Elect. 

Slow like a Palm-tree's was thy growth, 
But sure : the Sun that heals stood high 

Ere all thy greatness met, though loth, 
Smit by His beam, the general eye. 

But, like some Western hill that flings 
O'er sunset vales at last its shade. 

Thy power shall wax when transient things 
Give i^lace, and shapes ephemeral fade. 

In the world's eve thy Star shall flash 

Through reddening skies that cease to weep 

While kings to earth their sceptres dash, 
And angel bands the harvest reap. 



HYMJ^S AND POEMS. 217 



AUXILIUM CHRISTIANORUM. 

O STRONG- in prayer ! our spirits bind 
To God : our bodies keep from sin : 

Live in our hearts tliat Ciirist may find 
An incorrupt abode therein: 

That He, the Eternal Spirit, He 
Who overshadowed with His Grace 

The depths of thy Humility, 
In us may have a resting-place. 

Who love thee x)rosper! As a breeze 
Thou waft'st them o'er the ways divine : 

Strange heights they reach with magic ease 
Through music-moulded discipline. 

The children of the House are they, 
Kot strangers ranged around the gate : 

The children love, and learn in play; 
The stranf^ers w^in their dole, but wait. 



218 HYMNS AND POEMS. 



THE FIRST DOLOUR. 

(The Prophecy of Simeon.) 

To he the motlier of her Lord — 

What means it ? • This, a bleeding heart ! 

The pang that woke at Simeon's word 
Worked inward, never to depart. 

The dreadful might of Sin she knew 

As Innocence alone can know: 
O'er her its deadliest gloom it threw 

As shades lie darkest on the snow. 

Yet o'er her Sorrow's depth no storm 
Of earth's rebellious passion rolled : 

So sleejDS some lake no gusts deform. 
High on the dark hills' craggy fold. 

In that still glass the unmeasured cliff, 
With all its scars and clouds is shown : 

And, mellowed in that Mother's grief. 
At times, O Christ, we catch Thine ovv^n I 



HYMNS AND POEMS. 219 



THE SECOND DOLOUR. 

(The Flight into Egypt.) 

The fruitful River slides along; 

The Conqueror's City glitters nigli; 
The Palm-groves ring with dance and song; 

Earth trembles, crimsoned from the sky. 

Far down the sunset lonely stands 

Some temple of a bj^gone age, 
Slow-settling into sea-like sands, 

Long served with prayer and pilgrimage. 

Here ruled the Shepherd-Kings, and they 
That race from Sun and Moon which drew 

The unending lines of Priestly sway ; 
Here Alexander's standard flew. 

Here last the great Cs3sarian star 
Through Egypt's sunset flashed its beam. 

While pealed the Roman trump afar, 
And Earth's first Empire like a dream 



220 HYMNS AND POEMS. 

Dissolved. But who are they — the Three 
That pierce, thus late, yon desert wide ? 

The Babe is on His Mother's knee; 
Low-bent an old Man walks beside. 

What say'st thou, Egypt ? " Let them come I 

Of such as little note I keeiD 
As of the least of flies that hum 

Above my deserts, or my deep l" 



HYMNB AN D POEMS. 221 



THE THIRD DOLOUR. 

(Jesus left behind in the Temple.) 

Three days she seeks lier Child in vain: 
He who vouchsafed that holy woe 

And makes the gates of glory pain, 
He, He alone its dej)th can know. 

She wears the garment He must wear. 
She tastes His chalice ! From a Cross 

Unseen she cries, "Where art Thou, where? 
Why hast Thou me forsaken thus?" 

With feebler hand she touches first 
That sharpest thorn in all His Crown, 

Worse than the ISTails, the Reed, the Thirst, 
Seeming Desertion's icy frown! 

O Saviour ! we, the weak, the blind, 

We lose Thee, snared in Pleasure's bound: 

Teach us once more Thy Face to find 
Where only Thou art truly found, 



222 HYMNS AND POEMS. 

In Thy true Chiircli, its Faith, its Love 
Its anthemed Rites or Penance mute, 

And that interior Life whereof 
Eternal Life is flower and fruit. 



T£ Y M N S A K D POEMS. 



c23 



THE FOUETH DOLOUR. 

(The meeting on Calvary.) 

She stands before Him on the Road: 
He bears tlie Cross, and climbs tlie steep: 

Three times He sinks beneath His load: 
To earth He sinks: she does not weep. 

She may not touch that Cross whose weight 
Against His will a stranger bears: 

In heart to bear it, and to wait 
His upward footsteps, this is hers. 

She may not prop that thorn-crowned Head: 
The waves of men between them break : 

Another's hand the veil must spread 
Against that -forehead and that cheek. 

Her eyes on His are fastened. Lo ! 

There stand they, met on Calvary's height, 
Twin mirrors of a single woe 

Made by reflection inflnite. 



224 HYMNS AND POEMS. 

The sons of Sion round tliem rave : 
The Roman trumpet storms the wind: 

They goad Him on with spear and stave : 
He j)asses by : she drops behind. 



HYMNS' AND POEMS. 225 



THE FIFTH DOLOUR. 

(Beside the Croes.) 

She stood in silence. Slowly passed 
The hours whose moments dropped in blood: 

Its frown the Darkness further cast: 
She moved not: silently she stood. 

No human sympathy she sought : 
Her help was God, and God alone ; 

Not even the instinctive respite caught 
From passionate gesture, sigh, or moan. 

Her silence listened. On the air 

Like death-bells tolled that prime Decree 

Which bade the Eternal Victim bear 
Mankind's transgression. Let it be I 

The "Women round her heard all day 

The clash of arms, the scoffing tongue : 
She heard the breaking of that spray 

From which the fruit of Knowledge hung. 
15 



236 HYMNS AND POEMS. 

Behold the Babe of Bethlehem ! Aye ! 

The Infant slumbered on thy breast; 
And thou that heard'st His earliest cry 

Must hear His '' Consummatum est." 



HYMIs^S AKD POEMS. 227 



THE SIXTH DOLOUR. 

(Jesns taken down from the Cross.) 

The Saviour from tlie Cross they took: 
Across His Mother's knee He lies: 

She wept not, but a little shook 
As with dead hand she closed dead eyes. 

The surface wave of Grief we know : 
By us its dejDths are unexplored: 

She treads the still abyss below, 
Following the footsteps of her Lord. 

Above her head the great floods roll: 
That Lord, that Son, remains her Hope : 

And calm, within the storms, her Soul, 
Calm as the w^hirlj^ool's central drop. 

The Saviour from the Cross they took : 
Across His Mother's knee He lay: 

O passers by ! be still and look ! 
That Twain compose one cross for aye. 



238 HYMNS AND POEMS. 



THE SEVENTH DOLOUR. 

(Before the Tomb.) 

Before the Tomb the Mother sate 
Amid the ncw-clelved garden ground : 

Her eyes upon its stony gate 

Were fixed, while darkness closed around. 

A wind above the olives crept: 

It seemed the world's collected sigh: 

That Mother's eyes their vigil kept: 
She felt but this; her Lord was nigh. 

Behind her, leaning each on each, 
The Holy Women w^aited near: 

Nor any spake of comfort : speech 
Was slain by sorrow, and by fear. 

From realm to realm of night He passed, 
That Soul which smote the dark to day: 

That Mother's eyes were settled fast. 
Upon the Tomb where Jesus lay. 



HYMNS AND POEMS. 229 



THE TRUE HUMANITY. 

Sacred Humanity of Christ, all hail ! 
Glorified Manhood which alone art Man; 
Great Archetype in God's own image formed 
From everlasting. Adam was to Thee 
Second, not first. Essential Man art Thou ; 
Yie are but pigmy and distorted shades 
Downcast from Adam's lightning-blasted trunk 
Upon the blighted heath of mortal li:fe, 
Or timeless and abortive fruit unblest. 
True Man ! true God that art alone true Man ! 
Thou from Whose touch deific streams that power 
Which keeps from further and more bestial lapse 
The race created human ; hail, O hail ! 
Hail in Thy Paradise of lonely light 
Walking with God ; in Thy Regalities 
The Mediatorial Realm from, pole to ]3ole 
Swaying: all hail, great Pontiff, with Thyself 
Lighting Thy Church: all hail. Prophetic Power 
Before Whose eyes Creation yet unborn 
In vision passed ; and from Whose tongue her Works 
Their Names received, and were what they were 
called. 



" Not alone 
Standetli tlie great Priest in the light eterne." 

Pago 12. 

This thought belongs not to St. Gertrude, but to Origen. It is, 
however, so completely in harmony with the spirit in which St. 
Gertrude writes on the Communion of Saints, that I have ventur- 
ed to connect it with a hymn of hers. 



\A^^ 



j»- * 



\V -^.'^ 















">/> ,\\' 






V * , 









••^^^^^ X 



'^. .^ .^.^ 









:i^\^ 



^^y^ <^^ 










.^^"^.. 






-^. " 9 I \ 






.0^^ 



,^^ •% 



^,. v^^ ^M^ 



■*op^ 



^, c'i 



\^~ * 



Pl#.: ^^^..^^-^^ 



O C 










%^^r,\- -'0^' 










■<^''%^ 






^^-^.^ 



'^o 0^' 



/^ .^ ^ 



€' 







LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 490 047 9 



m 



